A Kurd was sworn in as president. A Sunni and a Shiite took the oaths of the vice-president positions. Ibrahim Jaafari, another Shiite, was named to the key post of prime minister of Iraq, and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi stepped aside. Hail to the first Iraqi government selected as a result of the power of the ballot rather than the fear of the bullet.
Shia Islamist Ibrahim Jaafari was named as Iraq’s next Prime Minister today, moving the country a step closer to its first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.
Jaafari announced his own nomination shortly after Iraq’s new President, Kurdish former guerrilla leader Jalal Talabani, was sworn into office in parliament, along with two deputies.
“Today represents a big step forward for Iraq and a big responsibility for me,†Jaafari, who spent more than two decades opposing Saddam Hussein from exile, said.
His appointment to the most powerful post under the interim constitution had long been agreed in principle but was held up by weeks of bargaining over other posts among the Shia and Kurdish groups that dominate the parliament elected on January 30. Jaafari said interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had resigned from his post but would continue as caretaker while Jaafari worked on putting the finishing touches to his cabinet line up. “I hope within one or two weeks maximum I will name the cabinet,†a smiling Jaafari said after his formal appointment by Talabani and the Shia and Sunni vice-presidents.
Talabani, 71, took the President’s oath of office a day after his election by parliament, as political and religious leaders looked on at a ceremony inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, seat of government and the vast US embassy. “I swear by God the great that I will work with devotion to preserve the independence and sovereignty of Iraq,†Talabani said.
As I predicted, the pieces quickly fell into place after the initial logjam cleared Sunday with the compromise that led to naming Sunni Hajem al-Hassani as speaker of the National Assembly.
Other interesting reading on the shape of the Iraqi government:
Editorial: Toward a Multiethnic Future
The convoluted constitutional process that has brought Iraqis thus far has been criticized for its unwieldiness. But most Iraqis are generally content with an arrangement that ensures that their country’s politicians work together on the basis of consensus. Extremists within the different communities have not found a way to exploit the delays caused by weeks of negotiations.
As the parliament’s new speaker-elect, Hajem Al Hassani said after the vote: “This is the new Iraq — an Iraq that elects a Kurd to be president and an Arab former president as his deputy. What more could the world want from us?â€
Quite right. It is a great achievement amidst the noise and dust, sound and fury, of the insurgency in Iraq for the country to come up with a political arrangement that represents and accommodates the three ethnic and sectarian factions. But given Iraq’s situation, the new Iraq and its leaders will have to do more. Not because the world wants them to do more but because doing so is Iraq’s own necessity to survive as an honourable member of the world community.
Doctor’s Mission: Heal Land Torn by War
Dr al-Jaafari has been a favourite for the post since the religiously conservative block reversed generations of Sunni dominance in government in the landmark polls. The 58-year-old doctor was widely favoured by supporters for being a devout Shia Muslim, but one who eschewed the religious trappings of many of his colleagues.
He has also said his government will not rule as a Shia leadership but as an Iraqi administration, and hopes to draw in Sunnis who have largely rejected involvement in the political process.
President Talabani, himself a former guerrilla fighter who battled Saddam for years, held out an olive branch to the Sunni insurgents who make up the backbone of the 20-month uprising that has left thousands dead.