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BAGHDAD -- The completion of the national unity government Thursday in Iraq marks the starting point for repaying Iraqis' commitment to and thirst for democracy. We are at this juncture thanks to the bravery of the soldiers, police and citizens who have paid the highest price to give Iraq its freedom. Our national unity government will honor these sacrifices by pursuing an uncompromising agenda to deliver security and services to the Iraqi people and to combat rampant corruption. This government will build on the additional momentum gained from the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in order to defeat terrorism and...

The United States has been quitley mulling the prospect that Iraq would break up into autonomous regions.The Council on Foreign Relations, which usually reflects State Department thinking, has recommended the restructuring of Iraq into six states under a single national government.Officials said the Bush Administration has been discussing options for Iraq following the withdrawal of troops in 2007, Middle East Newsline reported.Author David Phillips, a former advisor to the US government, proposed the establishment of two to three states dominated by Shiites.Another state would be comprised of mostly Sunnis and a third state would be Kurdish. Baghdad would be a...

On 16 March the Iraqi parliament met to convene its first official session as representatives of the so-called new Iraq. The new government had faced many obvious problems such as seating ministers, selecting a presidential council and, of course, agreeing on the premiership. Yet the session was plagued by a subtle yet more troubling shortcoming; namely it failed to address the status of the foreign occupation of Iraq. While the occupation remains to be the most blatant and destructive force in the country today, the national assembly had instead focused on dividing Iraq into a federal state. Three major structural...

Sunni leaders end boycott in name of liberation By Ellen Knickmeyer and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad May 23, 2005 Page Tools Email to a friend Printer format More than 1000 Sunni Arab clerics, political leaders and tribal heads have ended their two-year political boycott, to unite in a Sunni bloc to help draft Iraq's new constitution and compete in elections. Formation of the group on Saturday comes during escalating violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims that has raised the threat of sectarian war. The bloc represents moderate and hardline members of the Association of Muslim Scholars, the Iraqi Islamic Party...

... Yet, as the insurgents increasingly go after Iraqi civilians, one thing has become clear: Theirs is not, as many people maintained before the Jan. 30 elections, a struggle against American "occupation." It is a fight against a legitimate government trying to operate under the principle of self-rule -- and trying for the most part, notwithstanding terrible provocations, to include every ethnic group. As Mr. Rumsfeld said, their only strategy is butchery. That doesn't mean they are sure to lose; their barbarism can go a long way toward slowing the economic and political progress that Mr. Rumsfeld said is necessary....

WASHINGTON, May 14 - The Bush administration, struggling to cope with a recent intensification of insurgent violence in Iraq, has received signals from some radical Sunni Arab leaders that they would abandon fighting if the new Shiite majority government gave Sunnis a significant voice in the country's political evolution, administration officials said this week. The officials said American contacts with what they called "rejectionist" elements among Sunni Arabs - the governing minority under Saddam Hussein, which has generated much of the insurgency, and largely boycotted January's elections - showed that many wanted to join in the political system, including the...

SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2005 12:00 AM Democracy under attack in Iraq The Iraqi people won the first round of the battle for democracy when they defied terrorist death threats and cast their votes to elect a new parliament. Now they must win the second round by opposing the foreign jihadists and recalcitrant Sunnis who have set out to destabilize the new government by launching a new wave of terrorist violence that has claimed more than 400 lives and wounded thousands in the weeks since the formation of the new Cabinet was announced. As in the first terrorist campaign aimed at...

The first democratically elected Iraqi government was not even fully born when already its obituaries were being written. The front page of the New York Times last week reported of a "striking display of divisions," of "polarizing negotiations" and the "serious embarrassment" that the difficulties in finding suitable Sunni Arab cabinet ministers was causing. The implication of such reports is that without "credible" Sunnis in the cabinet, the government's legitimacy will be impaired, its efforts to defeat the current terrorist onslaught will be hobbled, or both. Before we get too breathless, some perspective is in order. First, Sunni Arabs now...

The Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, has said little in public during the marathon process of filling his cabinet with a cast of ministers acceptable to most of Iraq’s political factions. His low-key approach has finally yielded results, with the May 7th announcement that the remaining disputed posts, including oil and defence, had been filled. However, the long delay in forming a government has dissipated much of the optimism generated by the end-January election, while the insurgency rages on unabated and the task of rebuilding the Iraqi economy becomes ever more daunting. Mr Jaafari managed in the end to secure...

ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD -- Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari pledged to unite Iraq's rival ethnic and religious factions and fight terrorism as the nation's first democratically elected government was sworn in yesterday. "You all know the heavy legacy inherited by this government. We are afflicted by corruption, lack of services, unemployment and mass graves," Mr. al-Jaafari told lawmakers after taking the oath of office before the National Assembly. "I would like to tell the widows and orphans ... your sacrifices have not gone in vain."

Few Iraqis have heard of the "resource curse," the scholarly term for the economic and political miseries of countries with abundant natural resources. But in Tayeran Square, where hundreds of unemployed men sit on the sidewalk each morning hoping for a day's work, they know how the curse works. "Our country's oil should have made us rich, but Saddam spent it all on his wars and his palaces," said Sattar Abdula, who has not had a steady job in years. He proposed a simple solution instantly endorsed by the other men on the sidewalk: "Divide the money equally. Give each...

Recently the BBC decided to conduct an informal survey around Iraq: "Two years after the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad, marking the fall of the city to US-led forces, BBC Arabic.com asked seven Iraqis for their thoughts on how life has changed for them since the conflict." The results were surprising--at least for the BBC, whose attitude toward the liberation of Iraq has always been lukewarm at best. They were surprising for me too, not so much in what the seven Iraqis had to say, but that the BBC chose to run the story. Here's Saad, 32,...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In the end it was the demands of hard politics that kept most minority Sunnis out of Iraq's new government. And that could spur an escalation in the country's bloody insurgency. Despite U.S. pressure and their own recognition that it was a priority, Iraqi politicians failed to name a significant number of Sunni Arabs to the Cabinet. Those who were selected are not major figures in the Sunni community and none received high-profile portfolios. The promise to reach out to the Sunnis foundered on political realities: rivalries within the Shiite party that dominates the government, that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — After nearly three months of political wrangling, Iraq's interim National Assembly approved a partial Cabinet Thursday, ushering in the country's first elected government since the fall of Saddam Hussein and raising hopes for an end to the insurgency.

Iraq formed its first democratically elected government in more than 50 years on Thursday, ending three months of political stalemate that has crippled efforts to tackle violence. But Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari failed to name permanent ministers to five key portfolios, including oil and defense, and a top Sunni Muslim official criticized the new government as sectarian. The 275-seat parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the cabinet proposed by Jaafari, ending a power vacuum that had dissipated the optimism created by the Jan. 30 elections. The government's formation coincided with the 68th birthday of former dictator Saddam Hussein, who is...

Sunni Muslim politicians dropped their demand Monday to include former members of Saddam Hussein's party in Iraq's new Cabinet in a bid to get more ministries. Iraq's Sunni minority is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency and many here blame the months-long impasse in forming a new government for a resurgence in violence. As leaders of Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factors continued their backroom wheeling and dealing, Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari again put off his long-promised Cabinet announcement. The National Dialogue Council, a coalition of 10 different Sunni factions, initially requested 16 Cabinet seats. It submitted...

The Bush administration has hailed the formation of a new Iraqi government as a major step toward bringing stability to the country. But behind the scenes, some U.S. officials are fretting about Iraqi plans to remove as many as 9,000 members of the country's security, intelligence and police services who have been identified as former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath regime. Such a move could wreck the Iraqi forces that the U.S. has spent two years and $5 billion trying to train, according to U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington. They are also worried that a sweeping de-Baathification order could...

Through their democratically elected representatives, the people of Iraq have entrusted me with the office of the presidency. After 50 years of political struggle against discrimination and dictatorship, this is a grand honor and a humbling moment. As we look ahead to a new Iraq based on tolerance and equality, federalism and unity, democracy and freedom, we remember those whose sacrifice made this possible -- Iraqis, Americans, Britons, Poles, Italians, Czechs and so many others from around the world. 'snip' The choice of peace or war lies not with the Iraqis who ignored terrorism and intimidation to vote in their...

Saddam Hussein could avoid the gallows under a secret proposal by insurgent leaders that Iraq's new administration is "seriously considering", a senior government source said yesterday. A reprieve is understood to be among the central demands of Sunni nationalists and former members of Saddam's Ba'ath party who have reportedly begun negotiations with the government amid the backdrop of a bloody insurgency which claimed 30 lives during the weekend. Officials say they are looking for a way of joining the political process after January's election, which was boycotted by most of the once-powerful Sunni minority. "We are trying to reach out...

Baghdad-Al-Shark Al-Awsat: Khasru al-Jaf, member of the Iraqi National Assembly from the Kurdish National Coalition slate, said that the current Iraqi flag should changed because under this flag, thousands were killed and many became homeless and that the Iraqi flag has been replaced five rimes in the past, including three times during the republican era. Al-jaf clarified that the Iraqi flag has been under fraud and is a very sensitive issue. Also, the sacred word was not there before, and the one who placed it is known. It should be deep inside us and in conscience. This should be decided...

More foreign terrorists are entering Iraq, as al Qaeda desperately tries to maintain its level of operations. This effort is faltering. Al Qaeda is having an increasingly difficult time getting Iraqis to participate in attacks that might kill Iraqis. This is apparently behind two recent large scale attacks on American troops. One was an ambush, involving over 40 attackers. Most of the attackers were killed when the American MP escort got into action. One of the MP NCOs who led this counterattack is likely to get a medal for her bravery, and the way she drilled her troops beforehand to...

In the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 and the rise of Iraq's Shiites as the country's dominant political force, Iraq's Sunnis, who for centuries controlled Iraq, are now finding themselves greatly weakened politically, even marginalized. As a result, the three predominantly Sunni governorates in northwestern Iraq have become centers of insurgency and the source of most terrorist activities perpetrated by Abu Mus'ib al-Zarqawi. Many Sunnis also boycotted the January 30 elections, stating that they would participate only if a timetable for the withdrawal of the multinational forces was set first. A Sunni Shift in Position...

For the most important belligerents in the Iraq war, the war ended with an enormous victory this week. Shortly after Jalal Talabani was sworn in as the new president of Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari was appointed as the new prime minister. Saddam Hussein, who reportedly watched much of these proceedings from his jail cell, must have snapped his plastic spork in his apple brown betty at the news. Mr. Talabani, you see, is a Kurd and Mr. Jaafari is a Shiite. In a very real sense, George W. Bush didn't start the war in Iraq. He finished it. For decades, the...

Saddam Hussein watched the televised election of Iraq's new president from his jail cell yesterday and was "clearly upset", a senior official said. Jalal Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla commander and sworn enemy of Saddam, was elected to the highest office in a parliamentary ballot, bringing a new government a step closer. Under Saddam the only way Mr Talabani would have left his northern redoubt was in chains or a coffin, but yesterday he arrived in Baghdad in a blaze of triumph. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shia who is finance minister in the outgoing government, and Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab...

Jalal Talabani's selection by parliament yesterday as Iraq's first elected President was hardly unexpected.... For weeks Iraq's parties and factions have been haggling over the shape of the new administration, whose primary tasks will be improving security and writing a permanent constitution addressing such issues as the degree of Kurdish autonomy and the status of multi-ethnic and oil-rich Kirkuk. The long delay in forming a government was leading some to doubt whether Iraqis were up to the task. But Mr. Talabani's formal selection -- and that of Vice Presidents Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite, and Sunni Ghazi Yawar -- is...

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KIRKUK, Iraq - (KRT) - U.S. military officials are concerned that ethnic tensions could turn into widespread violence and, perhaps, civil war in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk, setting a dangerous pattern for rest of the country. Kirkuk oil fields hold at least 6 percent of the world's oil reserves and Kurdish talk of secession is at a fever pitch. A bloc of Kurdish-led politicians received the majority of seats on the provincial council after January elections and is now threatening to fill most key positions with Kurds. Arab and Turkmen (also known as Turkomen) politicians protested with a series...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi parliament picked Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, who has spent a lifetime resisting Arab domination, as the country's new interim president Wednesday, reaching out to the nation's long-repressed Kurdish minority and bringing the country closer to its first democratically elected government in 50 years.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi parliament chose Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new interim president Wednesday, reaching out to a long-repressed minority and bringing the country closer to its first democratically elected government in 50 years. Ousted members of the former regime — including toppled leader Saddam Hussein — were to watch the announcement on televisions in their prison cells, Iraqi officials said. It wasn't clear if they would watch it live or on a tape. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, were chosen as Talabani's two vice presidents. After weeks of...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 5 - Iraq's major political parties agreed Tuesday evening to appoint a president and two vice presidents at a meeting of the national assembly on Wednesday, breaking a two-month deadlock in negotiations to form a new government, senior Iraqi officials said.

As I write this column Tuesday morning, the well-deserved wall-to-wall coverage of the Pope's death seems to have obscured from view Iraqi news of an impending success in forming an Iraqi national unity government. Here is the agreed-to line-up, as reported by the Washington Times this morning. There will be a Sunni Speaker of the National Assembly, a Kurdish president, a Shia prime minister, and Sunni and Shia vice presidents. The Foreign Affairs ministry will go to a Kurd, the Defense Ministry to a Sunni, and Oil, Interior and Finance Ministries to the Shia. "They are still juggling with the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 5 - Iraq's major political parties agreed this evening to appoint a president and two vice presidents at a meeting of the national assembly on Wednesday, according to a senior assembly leader, breaking a two-month deadlock in negotiations to form a new government. The main Shiite and Kurdish political blocs have agreed to name Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, as president; Adel Abdul Mahdi, a prominent Shiite Arab politician, as vice president; and Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, the Sunni Arab president of the interim government, as the other vice president, said Hussein al-Shahristani, a vice speaker of the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein will watch from his Baghdad jail cell as Iraq's newly elected parliament chooses a new president Wednesday, the next step in building Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years, Iraqi officials said. Lawmakers put the finishing touches Tuesday on an agreement making Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani president and Shiite Adel Abdul-Mahdi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, his two vice presidents. On Thursday, the 275 lawmakers elected Jan. 30 likely will name Shiite leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari prime minister, clearing the way for lawmakers to begin focusing their attention on...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Veteran Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani will be named Iraq's new president at a parliament meeting on Wednesday, senior government sources said. They said the two vice presidents would be Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shi'ite politician who is currently finance minister, and outgoing President Ghazi Yawar, a Sunni Arab. The naming of a president and two vice presidents is a key step toward forming a government. The presidential council must then appoint a prime minister, who will choose a cabinet.

Albert Eisele, The Hill’s editor, recently spent 10 days in Iraq. In his latest report, he examines the triangular plan crafted by then-ambassador John Negroponte and Gen. George Casey, commander of the multinational forces. BAGHDAD — Much of the violence that has plagued Iraq in the two years since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein has been planned and carried out by insurgents and terrorists based in the Sunni triangle north and west of this city of seven million people. But another triangle, which had its origins in a chance meeting in Washington last June, appears to be paying off for...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Iraq's political factions have agreed on the outlines of an ethnically balanced government and expect to nominate a president and two vice presidents tomorrow , with the swearing-in to take place over the weekend. The two-month-old gridlock was broken over the weekend with the appointment of a Sunni Arab, Hashim al-Hassani, as speaker of the National Assembly and rough behind-closed-doors agreements on the makeup of the new Cabinet. "It was a great breakthrough to finally have the speaker announced," said Qubad Talabani, the Washington-based spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- whose leader, Jalal Talabani, is...

THE political map of the new Iraq has begun to clarify, with the selection of a president and prime minister by the newly elected parliament due today, after the ending of a month-long impasse between the victorious parties in January's elections. The choice of the new parliamentary Speaker, the Sunni Hajem al-Hassani, also sets the stage for the incoming administration to launch a fresh national reconciliation campaign and seek to gather in the diverse Sunni political forces that boycotted the election process. Signs of a decline in the intensity of the insurgency are being detected by weary US commanders, though...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 3 - The Iraqi national assembly appointed a speaker and two deputy speakers today, taking the first, if symbolic, step in installing a new government. In last-minute dealmaking on Saturday and this morning, the leaders of the top political parties settled on naming as speaker Hajim al-Hassani, a prominent Sunni Arab and the minister of industry under the interim government. Hussain al-Shahrastani, a nuclear physicist and leading Shiite Arab, and Arif Taifour, a Kurd, were selected to be the two deputies. The selections were formalized in an hourlong voting session of the assembly. Mr. Hassani's appointment came...

Iraq's legislature said Saturday that leaders of various blocs have agreed on naming a Sunni as the speaker of the National Assembly. Jawad al-Maliki, a prominent member of the powerful Shiite United Iraqi Bloc in the provisional parliament, said the blocs agreed to name Hajem al-Hosni, the interim industry minister, as speaker of the 275-seat National Assembly. Hosni, a member of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's bloc, is a former member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which withdrew from the interim government to protest U.S. raids on Falluja last year.

* In the midst of other activity in the region, attention is being focused on the Iraqi Transitional Assembly and its inability to choose a Prime Minister and other officers to lead Iraq pending the adoption of a permanent constitution. * In the elections in January, the Shiite coalition gained just over half the seats. The Kurds got slightly more than a quarter and the rest are split up between Shiites and independent groups. * The second meeting of the Assembly was marked by outbursts, walkouts, and outright shouting matches yesterday as, according to the BBC, "MPs lashed out at...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament erupted in acrimony at only its second sitting on Tuesday and journalists were thrown out after legislators berated leaders for failing to agree on a new government, two months after elections. When parliamentarians were told that despite last-minute talks that delayed the session no agreement had been reached, even on the post of parliamentary speaker, several stood up to say leading politicians were letting down the Iraqi people. "The Iraqi people who defied the security threats and voted -- what shall we tell them?" Hussein al-Sadr, a politician in the bloc led by interim Prime...

Acrimonious scenes dominated the meeting of Iraq's national assembly today as politicians failed to agree on a candidate for speaker. The new governing body convened briefly, for only the second time since national elections in January, and admitted defeat in nominating a Sunni candidate for the role. The session's start was delayed by nearly three hours as talks to fill the position continued. Once it began, politicians immediately began arguing over whether to delay their decision, and the leader of the session decided to banish reporters and cameras and take negotiations behind closed doors. "We demand to know the details...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Heading into their second-ever National Assembly session Tuesday, negotiators held last-minute discussions on a parliament speaker, struggling over the issue of bringing Sunni Arabs into the government, a step officials hope will quell the Sunni-led insurgency. AP Photo AFP Slideshow: Iraq Sunnis the Focus of Negotiations in Iraq A meeting late Monday between Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni representatives failed to come up with a name for the Sunni Arab candidate that legislators promised would be announced during Tuesday's assembly session. The session's start was delayed Tuesday as officials held frantic meetings aimed at reaching agreement. The Shiite-led...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES In the privacy of their E-ring offices, senior Pentagon officials have begun to entertain thoughts that were unimaginable a year ago: Iraq is turning the corner. Military officials and analysts say the clearing out of enemy-infested Fallujah in November, the Jan. 30 elections and the increasing willingness of Iraqis to fight and die for a democratic country are contributing to the momentum. "This is still a tough fight. We don't want anyone to think that it is not," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a military analyst who strongly supports Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld....

Iraqi resistance begins to crack after elections Jason Burke, chief reporter Sunday March 27, 2005 The Observer The Iraqi resistance has peaked and is 'turning in on itself', according to recent intelligence reports from Baghdad received by Middle Eastern intelligence agencies. The reports are the most optimistic for several months and reflect analysts' sense that recent elections in Iraq marked a 'quantum shift'. They will boost the government in the run-up to the expected general election in May. Though the reports predict that violence against coalition troops and local forces is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, at least...

The Iraqi resistance has peaked and is 'turning in on itself', according to recent intelligence reports from Baghdad received by Middle Eastern intelligence agencies. The reports are the most optimistic for several months and reflect analysts' sense that recent elections in Iraq marked a 'quantum shift'. They will boost the government in the run-up to the expected general election in May. Though the reports predict that violence against coalition troops and local forces is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, at least two Middle Eastern intelligence agencies believe that recent 'backchannel' initiatives aimed at persuading Sunni Muslim tribes in...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb struck a U.S. military patrol Saturday in the Iraqi capital, killing two American soldiers and injuring two others, and a Marine died in action in a restive central province, the military said. The man expected to become Iraqi's new prime minister said the coalition government could be formed within days. "God willing, the government could witness its birth in the coming few days," said Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a top member of the Shiite Muslim alliance that won the most parliamentary seats in Iraq's Jan. 30 balloting. The bloc has said it plans to stand al-Jaafari...

Many of Iraq's predominantly Sunni Arab insurgents would lay down their arms and join the political process in exchange for guarantees of their safety and that of their co-religionists, according to a prominent Sunni politician. Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, who heads Iraq's main monarchist movement and is in contact with guerrilla leaders, said many insurgents including former officials of the ruling Ba'ath party, army officers, and Islamists have been searching for a way to end their campaign against US troops and Iraqi government forces since the January 30 election.

BAGHDAD - Two years after war dramatically changed Iraq (news - web sites)'s political landscape, the former ruling minority Sunnis are developing plans to participate in a government formed by elections they boycotted. In a significant shift, several Sunni groups that hitherto shunned the political process met last weekend to create a unified front and set of demands that they will present to the Shiite and Kurdish leaders now hammering out a new government.