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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Talabani elected president of Iraq |
| 2005-04-06 |
| Iraqi MPs chose Kurdish former rebel leader Jalal Talabani as the country's first freely elected president, paving the way for a new government more than two months after landmark polls. The election of Talabani by the 275-member parliament was a major political victory for Iraq's long-suffering Kurdish minority, which was violently oppressed by ousted president Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab-dominated regime. Saddam himself had been expected to watch the parliament session from his prison cell on a US base in Baghdad where he is awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. Shiite Islamist Adel Abdel Mahdi and outgoing Sunni president Ghazi al-Yawar were elected as Talabani's two deputies during the session in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone after weeks of wrangling over the line-up of the three-man presidency. MPs predicted a new government should be in place by next week, with Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jafaari set to be named prime minister Thursday by the new presidential council. As he was sworn in in front of a giant Iraqi flag, Talabani pledged to heal the country's sectarian divisions. "We will spare no effort to present Iraq as a model of democracy... We hope to consolidate national unity... regardless of religious and sectarian backgrounds." Talabani told reporters his presidency meant that "all Iraqis are equal before the law. It means that there is no discrimination, that all Arabs, Kurds and other nationalities have the same rights." He also reached out to nationalists among Sunni Arab insurgents, hoping to peel them away from hardline Islamic groups like Al-Qaeda which are blamed for some of the deadliest attacks that have rocked the country since the US-led invasion of 2003. "Those Iraqis who are carrying arms to fight foreign troops, they are our brothers we can talk to to reach a result," he said. Talabani and his two deputies, who stood unopposed after weeks of bartering among Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis, were elected with the support of 228 MPs. The assembly erupted in applause when the names were announced, bringing to an end the tortuous negotiations that risked losing the faith of Iraqi voters who risked their lives going to the polls on January 30. The election of the three-man council drew a warm welcome abroad, even from neighbouring countries with their own Kurdish minorities that have long worried about Kurdish power in the new Iraq. "This political process shows that every component of Iraqi society has reached a consensus and is willing to start drafting a permanent constitution which is the basis for rebuilding an Iraqi state and putting an end to the occupation," Arab League assistant secretary general Ahmed Ben Helli told AFP. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Talabani was an "experienced politician". "He is someone who values Iraq's integrity. Therefore I congratulate him." Saddam and 11 of his top aides were to have watched the proceedings from their jail cells on a fortified US base in Baghdad, Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin told AFP. "There will be a place in jail for Saddam and the 11 to watch the TV to understand their time is finished, there is a new Iraq and that they are no longer ruling the country; so they can understand that in the new Iraq, people are elected and they are not coming to power by a coup d'etat," Amin said. Deputy parliament speaker Hussein Shahrastani said the presidential council would be sworn in at 3 pm Thursday (local time) and then nominate Jaafari as prime minister. "The presidency council will take (the) oath tomorrow and nominate Ibrahim Jaafari, and we will have a few days to nominate the government," the Shiite MP said. "Everything will be in place the beginning of next week or the end of next week at latest." The appointment of Jaafari, leader of the Dawa party, a Shiite religious faction, will usher in a new era for the majority community, at the head of Iraq's government for the first time after decades of repression. The main task for parliament and the new government will be to oversee the drafting of a new constitution and pave the way for fresh elections by December. MPs plan to switch their sessions to the old parliament building used under the monarchy overthrown in 1958 - a giant sandstone palace in the Green Zone which now hosts the defence ministry - secular Shiite MP Ahmed Chalabi said. Underscoring the continued violence in Iraq, a US soldier was killed in an ambush in Baghdad, bringing to 1,535 the number of US military personnel who have died since the invasion more than two years ago. The Islamic Army in Iraq, a militant group that has taken several foreigners hostage, meanwhile released videotape in which it said it had decided to release two Sudanese hostages a month after saying it would execute them. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Kurd a president... I think that some Turks will be ill at ease with this result. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-04-06 6:03:57 PM |