{"id":1283,"date":"2005-12-31T00:16:23","date_gmt":"2005-12-31T06:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2005-12-31T00:18:27","modified_gmt":"2005-12-31T06:18:27","slug":"iraqi-leaders-agree-in-principle-to-enlarge-cabinet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1283","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Leaders Agree in Principle to Enlarge Cabinet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The key phrase in that headline has to be the &#8220;in principle&#8221; hedging.  Still, this is a <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2005-12\/30\/content_3989162.htm\">promising development<\/a> for those who saw the worst in the recent Iraqi parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Iraq&#8217;s Shiite and Kurdish leaders said on Thursday that they agree in principle to enlarge the next government&#8217;s cabinet to include representatives of other communities in a bid to push for a national unity government.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Kurdish coalition and the Shiite alliance agree in principle on a government of national unity,&#8221; Kurdish leader and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told reporters after a meeting with Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim in Dokhan, a mountain resort 400km north of Baghdad.<\/p>\n<p>However, Talabani specified that there would be some restrictions in the forming of an enlarged cabinet, saying, &#8220;the other parties must believe in certain principles,&#8221; including &#8220;rejection of terrorism.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While the move is obviously intended to allay concerns about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chron.com\/disp\/story.mpl\/world\/3555353.html\">election irregularities<\/a> or the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/mld\/mercurynews\/news\/world\/13518444.htm\">lack of support<\/a> for secular entities, it is still a move in the right direction.  Democracy is a series of missteps heading in the right general direction &#8230; hopefully;  this is no different for the fledgling attempt in Iraq.  Every effort toward inclusion should be considered a welcome one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The key phrase in that headline has to be the &#8220;in principle&#8221; hedging. Still, this is a promising development for those who saw the worst in the recent Iraqi parliamentary elections. Iraq&#8217;s Shiite and Kurdish leaders said on Thursday that they agree in principle to enlarge the next government&#8217;s cabinet to include representatives of other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}