Tough talks resume to form new Iraq government

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Tough negotiations on forming Iraq's long-delayed national unity government resumed after a two-day suspension in a week that has seen almost no progress but plenty of violence.

Since Monday, there has only been one meeting in talks that have dragged on for months and even took a week-long break for Kurdish and Shiite holidays.

"It's true, the pace of discussions between the political blocs has been slow, but I remain confident that the government will be formed in April,"

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on Thursday.

 

But on Friday, political leaders were arriving for the meeting at the house of President Jalal Talabani.

Robert Ford, the US embassy's top political analyst pointed out that a great deal has been accomplished so far.

"Iraq political and religious leaders have made a real progress towards standing up their permanent government," he said in an online question and answer session.

"Of course, there are still big decisions to be made. They still have to finalize the choice of prime minister and his deputies, president and his deputies, the parliament leadership, as well as the cabinet ministers," acknowledged Ford.

Those familiar with the talks have said that nearly all the ministries have been apportioned save for the extremely sensitive ones such as interior and defense.

The bylaws governing the operation of the cabinet have been agreed to as has the formation of a national security council which would make sure that all political parties have input into the security situation.

That agreement, however, did not prevent a break off in talks earlier this week as Sunnis and Shiites sparred over a Sunni proposal to give a deputy prime minister, presumably a Sunni, direct oversight on the interior ministry.

The December 15 general election generated a great deal of optimism, especially given the high turnout of Sunni Arabs who boycotted the previous polls, but that has evaporated amid political bickering and rising violence.

Even though the broad results were clear almost immediately, talks did not even begin until certified results were released on February 12.

Only days later, though, a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra was blown up by terrorists, sparking an outbreak of sectarian killing that has yet to completely subside.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been a regular participant in the talks. He has worked hard to bridge the differences between the parties and repeatedly called for the swift formation of a government and non-sectarian ministries.

However, he has come under fierce criticism from Shiite politicians who characterize his efforts as crossing the line into interference, especially following reports that he had delivered messages from US President George W. Bush to Shiite leaders asking that the current prime minister be replaced.

The US embassy has denied these reports.

"There's concern among the Iraqi people that the democratic process is being threatened," Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, of the conservative Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, told the New York Times.

"The source of this is that some American figures have made statements that interfere with the results of the democratic process," he said, without elaborating. "These reservations began when the biggest bloc in parliament chose its candidate for prime minister."

The next few weeks are expected to be the critical ones for the talks. There is rising pressure not only from abroad but Iraqis themselves for a new government to be formed and to start solving the country's persistent problems.

"We warn all the politicians chasing after ministries and looting the country's wealth about the terrible consequences the country is facing," said Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi, one of the four most revered Shiite clerics in the country, in statement calling for the prompt formation of a government.

On the ground, two civilians were killed Friday by a rocket that had been aimed at the interior ministry in central Baghdad but missed its targed, a ministry official said.

"One Katyusha apparently aimed at the ministry of interior hit the house next door, killing two civilians and wounding three," he said.

A policeman working in an anti-terror unit was shot dead while he walked along a busy thoroughfare in downtown Baghdad.

And in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, police found three bound bodies bearing traces of torture and shot in the head.

Another body turned up in the south of the city and a fifth was found floating in the Tigris River.