By Edward Wong
New York Times
04 April 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 3 - The Iraqi national assembly appointed a speaker and two deputy speakers on Sunday, taking the first step, though a largely symbolic one, toward installing a new government.
In last-minute deal making on Saturday and Sunday morning, the leaders of the top political parties settled on Hajim M. al-Hassani, a prominent Sunni Arab and the minister of industry in the interim government, as speaker. They selected Hussain al-Shahristani, a nuclear physicist and leading Shiite Arab, and Arif Taifour, a Kurd, as the two deputies.
Speaker of the assembly is a largely ceremonial post, and so the step the assembly took was more symbolic than substantive. But it showed that the various parties could at least resolve their differences on minor issues. The first significant move will only occur if the assembly agrees on a president and two vice presidents. Those officers would then have two weeks to select a prime minister, who would appoint a cabinet.
The assembly formalized the selections in an hourlong voting session. Mr. Hassani was appointed after several days of fractious negotiations, in which various groups reviewed and rejected candidates. The groups had agreed that a Sunni Arab should take the post, but could not settle on which one.
At the second meeting of the 275-member assembly, on March 29, the assembly did not pick a speaker because Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, the interim Iraqi president, had rejected the job. That stirred more unrest among many Iraqis, who have been eagerly awaiting the installation of a government since the Jan. 30 elections. The talks to form a coalition government have been mired in debate over many issues, including control of oil revenues and the role of Islam in the new government.
After the votes were counted Sunday, Mr. Hassani took a seat at 12:20 p.m. at a table at the head of the assembly. He was flanked by his two deputies. He then urged the assembly members to move past ethnic and sectarian differences to work for the greater good of Iraq.
"The Iraqi people have placed their trust in you to rebuild the destroyed country and to eliminate all administrative and financial corruption in state establishments," said Mr. Hassani, 50, who earned a doctorate at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics of the University of Connecticut and lived in Los Angeles for 12 years. "You should be part of the suffering of your people."
Outside the assembly room, Mr. Hassani told reporters, "I am an Iraqi before I am a Sunni."
He ran for the assembly as the second name on the Iraqis Party slate led by Sheik Yawar. During the formal American occupation and the start of the interim government, Mr. Hassani was a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a religious Sunni group. But last November, when that party called for withdrawal from the interim government over the government's support for the American assault on Falluja, Mr. Hassani decided to leave the party and continue in his ministerial role.
To Western reporters, Mr. Hassani puts forth a secular appearance and underscores his time in the United States. But his former ties to the Iraqi Islamic Party indicate that he could support conservative Islamic policies for the new government.
In recent weeks, the main Shiite and Kurdish blocs, which together have more than two-thirds of the assembly seats, have said they want to ensure that prominent Sunni Arabs have significant roles in the new government. Mr. Hassani's appointment was a nod in that direction. The Sunnis, who held the bulk of political power in Saddam Hussein's government, make up a fifth of the population and lead the insurgency.
"I think he's well accepted personally, and this acceptance will give him a broad base among the Sunnis, but this does not rule out that there will be opposition among some Sunnis," said Jawad al-Maliki, a deputy leader of the Dawa Islamic Party, a powerful Shiite group whose leader, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is the top candidate for prime minister.
Officials from the various parties said several issues still had to be worked out before the rest of the government would be appointed. The politicians have yet to determine who will take the vice presidential post they intend to give to a Sunni Arab: Sheik Yawar, the interim president, or Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein, a member of the Hashemite dynasty. The parties also need to work out who will get the most coveted ministry jobs, like oil minister.
Assembly members said they would meet Wednesday to appoint the presidency council.
Raja al-Khuzai, an assembly member on the slate led by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, said it was asking for the Interior Ministry, a deputy prime minister post and a vice presidency.
During an intermission on Sunday, a mortar landed outside the fortified Green Zone, where the assembly meeting was being held.
American military officials updated the casualty count from a well-organized insurgent attack on Abu Ghraib prison on Saturday evening. At least 23 soldiers and marines were wounded, most of them slightly, the officials said. Thirteen Iraqi prisoners were also wounded. Forty to 60 guerrillas took part in the assault.
News agencies reported that the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant, took responsibility in an Internet posting.
Also on Sunday, the American military said a marine was killed by an explosion on Saturday in Haditha, in western Iraq. Another American soldier was killed Sunday evening in a roadside bomb explosion near Bayji in northern Iraq, the military said.
Bobby Worth contributed reporting from Baghdad.
----------------------------------------------------
Citation: Edward Wong, "Iraq Takes Step Toward New Government," New York Times, 4 April 2005.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/international/middleeast/04iraq.html?ei=5090&en=2f38f02a8bbe2f43&ex=1270267200&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=
--------------------------------------------------