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Allawi party not part of new Iraq cabinet
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-25 16:43
After nearly three months of negotiations, Iraq's major Shiite bloc has
decided to form a Cabinet without members of interim Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi's Iraqi List party, lawmakers said Sunday.
Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari could submit a list of ministers
to parliament as soon as Monday, they said.
"There is a big expectation that tomorrow there will be an announcement of a
new government without the participation of the Iraqi List," said Saad Jouawd
Qandil, a member of al-Jaafari's Shiite-dominated Iraqi United Alliance.
There were conflicting reports, however, when the allocation of seats would
be final. Qandil thought the final list would be submitted to parliament on
Tuesday. But Ali Adib, another alliance member, said al-Jaafari would make the
announcement on Monday.
"We weren't able to succeed in our talks with Allawi's group, and so we'll go
ahead with a government formed by the Kurds, Sunnis and the Shiites," Adib told
The Associated Press on Sunday. "Tomorrow we expect to announce to the assembly
the government."
Members of Allawi's party could not immediately be reached for comment.
Al-Jaafari's alliance has repeatedly predicted he would soon announce a new
Cabinet. So far each prediction since the Jan. 30 elections has proved wrong.
Many Shiites long have resented Allawi, himself a secular Shiite. They accuse
his outgoing administration of having brought into the government and security
forces former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, who had helped carry out
policies that oppressed many Iraqis — especially Shiites and Kurds.
On Friday, Allawi's Iraqi List alliance, which controls 40 seats in the
275-member interim National Assembly, accused Shiites of trying to keep all the
party's members out of the new Cabinet. But it said the party would continue to
support the government, even if it is excluded.
The dispute with Allawi's party is just one of a number of issues that have
stalled the formation of a government. The alliance, which controls 148 seats,
is also trying to balance the competing demands of Kurdish factions while
drawing in members of the country's Sunni minority.
The Sunnis, who largely stayed away from the Jan. 30 election either in
boycott or out of fear of attacks at the polls, won only 17 seats and are widely
believed to form the backbone of the insurgency.
In April, the interim parliament elected Hajim al-Hassani as parliament
speaker in a gesture toward the Sunni Arab community and Kurdish leader Jalal
Talabani to the largely ceremonial job of president. Talabani and his two vice
presidents then selected al-Jaafari as interim prime minister.
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