IRAQ: Re-elected President Jalal Talabani formally asks Jawad al-Maliki to form post-war Iraq's first full-term government

Record ID: 359057

  • Title: IRAQ: Re-elected President Jalal Talabani formally asks Jawad al-Maliki to form post-war Iraq's first full-term government
  • Date: 23rd April 2006
  • Summary: PEOPLE GATHERED OUTSIDE FRONT OF SHOPS BURNT OUT BY BLAST DAMAGED SHOP SIGN MAN CLEARING FURNITURE FROM DAMAGED SHOP
  • Embargoed: 8th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7XOK5KWGLIOKDFPLZG8EXFFSN
  • Story Text: Iraq's parliament elected incumbent President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, for a second term on Saturday (April 22) as politicians began putting together a national unity government after four months of political deadlock.
    Talabani, who has spent most of his life fighting for the cause of the Kurds in northern Iraq, is the first non-Arab president of an Arab country.
    Parliament, elected in December elections, convened on Saturday for a session that is expected to eventually put in place a government of national unity, bringing together Shi'ite, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
    After he was sworn in, Talabani asked Shi'ite politician Jawad al-Maliki to head Iraq's first full-term government since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein.
    Maliki, a tough-talking Shi'ite leader, will face the monumental task of tackling the insurgency, easing sectarian strife, neutralising militias and rescuing the economy in a country many say is on the verge of sectarian civil war.
    "I would like to inform the brothers and sisters that we unanimously agreed to ask our dearest brother Nouri Kamel Al-Malaki, which we know as Jawad al-Malaki, to successfully head cabinet," Talabani said in parliament.
    He was nominated on Friday (April 21) by the Shi'ite Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament, in a compromise vote that ended four months of political deadlock.
    Maliki immediately called for Iraq's militias to be merged with the armed forces. The United States wants them disarmed.
    "Arms should only be in the hands of the government. There is a law that calls for the merging of militias with the armed forces on the basis that it does not forget its struggle against dictatorship," Maliki said in his first policy speech after Talabani asked him to head the new government.
    The United States hopes a unity government of Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds will foster stability and enable it to start bringing home its more than 130,000 troops.
    Maliki, an official in Iraq's oldest Islamist party, now has one month to form a cabinet and put it to a vote. He sought to shake off his hardline Shi'ite image and present himself as a man capable of uniting Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
    Appointing officials overseeing powerful ministries, including the interior, defence and oil portfolios, will test Maliki's ability as a deal-maker.
    Meanwhile, a fireman and a civilian were killed and 15 others wounded when two roadside bombs exploded inside a market in al-Muqdadiya town 90 km (50 miles) north east of Baghdad, police said.
    They said that a bomb exploded in front of a shop and setting it on fire. As police and firemen arrived at the scene, another roadside bomb went off, killing two. Two shops were completely burnt out by the blast.
    Three years after U.S. forces invaded Iraqis have grown disillusioned with Iraq's political class as bombings, shootings, kidnappings and crime plague the country.
    Maliki, who lived for years in exile in Shi'ite Iran and Syria during Saddam's rule, will have to prove to weary Iraqis he can deliver.
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