The largest bloc in parliament, with 130 lawmakers, the Shiite alliance gets
to name the prime minister subject to parliament approval. But the Shiites lack
the votes in the 275-member parliament to guarantee their candidate's approval
unless they have the backing of the Sunnis and Kurds, whom they need as partners
to govern.
The Sunnis and Kurds, however, rejected al-Jaafari, blaming him for the
recent rise in secular tensions in Iraq.
Al-Jaafari won the alliance nomination two months ago by only one vote,
relying on support from radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
With the deadlock dragging on, more Shiite lawmakers have shown a willingness
to dump him ¡ª though they have been reluctant to do so overtly and break the
coalition. Al-Jaafari, meanwhile, repeatedly refused to step aside, saying as
recently as Wednesday that doing do was "out of the question."
President Bush on Wednesday urged the Iraqis to "step up and form a unity
government so that those who went to the polls to vote recognize that a
government will be in place to respond to their needs."
Resolution of the prime minister issue could smooth the way for filling other
posts, including the president, two vice presidents, parliament speaker and the
two deputy speakers. The Shiites could block Sunni and Kurdish candidates for
those positions in retaliation for the standoff over al-Jaafari.
Late Wednesday, the Sunnis decided to support Adnan al-Dulaimi for speaker, a
post held by a Sunni Arab in the last parliament.
Thursday's parliament session was intended to vote on the parliament speaker
and his deputies. But in the wake of al-Jaafari's announcement, the Shiite
coalition said it would not attend and asked that the session be put off until
the weekend.
Parliament leaders were meeting to decide whether to hold the session.
Lawmakers have met briefly only once since the Dec. 15 election.
Iraqi leaders are under enormous pressure from the United States and Britain
to form a new national unity government to stem the country's slide toward chaos
and enable Washington and London to show political progress to electorates
becoming ever more skeptical of Iraq policy.
Sectarian tensions have been running high since the Feb. 22 bombing of a
Shiite shrine in Samarra and the reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and
clerics that followed.