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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bowing to intense pressure, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari agreed Thursday to allow Shiite lawmakers to find someone else to head the new government, abandoning his claim on another term in the face of Sunni and Kurdish opposition. Al-Jaafari's abrupt reversal was an apparent breakthrough in the monthslong struggle to form a national unity government. The Bush administration hopes such a government will curb Iraq's slide toward anarchy and enable the U.S. to start bringing home its 133,000 troops. Leaders in the seven-party Shiite alliance, the largest bloc in the 275-member parliament, were to meet Friday to begin...

Amidst rumors of a coup, the prime minister may finally be willing to step aside. More than four months after the election, a shift in the position of incumbent prime minister may finally open the way for the creation of a new Iraqi government. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced Thursday that he would refer his nomination for a second term back to the United Iraqi Alliance, the dominant Shi'ite bloc in the new legislature. That opens the way for the Alliance to select a new candidate and break the deadlock created by the refusal of the Kurdish, Sunni and secular...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bowing to intense pressure, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari agreed Thursday to allow Shiite lawmakers to find someone else to head the new government, abandoning his claim on another term in the face of Sunni and Kurdish opposition.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, under intense pressure to give up plans for a second term, agreed Thursday to let Shiite lawmakers reconsider his nomination, a step that could mark a breakthrough in the months-long effort to form a new government. Key to al-Jaafari's change of heart was pressure from U.N. envoy Ashraf Qazi and his meetings Wednesday with the most powerful Shiite cleric in the country, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric who has backed al-Jaafari, said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. "There was a signal from Najaf," Othman said, referring to al-Sistani's office in the Shiite...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - 0420dv-qna-iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, under intense pressure to give up plans for a second term, agreed Thursday to let Shiite lawmakers reconsider his nomination, a step that could mark a breakthrough in the months-long effort to form a new government. Key to al-Jaafari's change of heart was pressure from U.N. envoy Ashraf Qazi and his meetings Wednesday with the most powerful Shiite cleric in the country, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric who has backed al-Jaafari, said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. "There was a signal from Najaf," Othman said, referring to...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari cleared the way Thursday for Shiite leaders to withdraw his nomination for a second term, a step that could break a months-long standoff that is blocking the formation of a new government

Iraq: Jaafari ready to give up its candidature for the post of Prime Minister BAGHDAD - Ibrahim Jaafari was ready Thursday to be given up her candidature for the post of Prime Minister after having lengthily insisted to succeed itself, opening the way at an exit of the political crisis in Iraq. "Doctor Jaafari was selected like candidate by the Iraqi unified list (AUI, the block Shiite) and it asks today this block to decide its candidature", declared one of its close relations Jawad Al-Maliki with the press. Outgoing the Prime Minister thus leaves with his block the choice...

Iraq's vice-president has added his voice to calls for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to step down as candidate to lead a new government. Adel Abdul Mahdi is the most senior figure in Mr Jaafari's dominant Shia alliance to urge him to withdraw. Mr Jaafari's nomination is one of the main sticking points in deadlocked coalition talks with Kurds and Sunnis. Mr Mahdi's comments came a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw ended a visit to Baghdad to press for swifter movement on establishing a government of national unity.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's biggest Shi'ite Islamist party will urge Ibrahim al-Jaafari to resign as prime minister, a senior parliamentarian from SCIRI said on Sunday in the first publicly hostile comments from Jaafari's key coalition ally.

Senior members of Iraq’s ruling Shia Alliance bloc called publicly for the first time on Saturday for Ibrahim Al Jaafari to step down as prime minister to break months of deadlock over a national unity government. “I call on Jaafari to take a courageous step and set a fine example by stepping down,” Kasim Daoud, a senior member of the independent group within the Alliance, told Reuters. Other senior Alliance officials, speaking anonymously, confirmed that four of seven main groups within the bloc wanted Jaafari to give up the nomination for a second term. “There is a broad trend inside...

The Bush administration has told Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari he is unacceptable as head of the next government, the New York Times reports. Redha Jowad Taki, a member of parliament, told the Times that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad passed on a personal message from President Bush at a meeting last Saturday. Taki, who was at the meeting, said Khalilzad told Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim that Bush doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept Jaafari. Jaafari and other Shiite leaders are not taking the message well.

Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari says he is willing to withdraw his nomination to lead the new government if the Iraqi people want him to do so. "If my people ask me to step aside I will do this," Mr Jaafari said, shortly after attending the much-delayed inaugural session of Iraq's parliament. The Shias' nomination of Mr Jaafari has been a major sticking point in forming a government as he lacks wider support. He has been criticised for not doing more to curb Iraq's violence. Growing sectarian violence in the country has prompted predictions that Iraq is on the brink...

Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over a recent surge of sectarian killing that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government. The Sunni Arab minority blames al-Jaafari for failing to control Shiite militiamen who attacked Sunni mosques and clerics after the Feb. 22 bombing of the Askariya mosque in Samarra. More than 500 people were killed in the violence, according to police and hospital accounts. Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, said Iraq has gone from "bad to worse."...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - President Jalal Talabani on Saturday underscored the need for a unity government in Iraq after a spasm of sectarian killing and said he had been assured U.S. forces would remain in the country as long as needed - ``no matter what the period.'' His comments came after a bomb exploded at a minibus terminal during morning rush hour in a southeastern Baghdad suburb, killing seven people and wounding 25, one of a string of explosions in the capital and elsewhere. The violence shattered the relative calm brought by Fridays' driving ban in Baghdad and its outskirts,...

Talks on the formation of a new administration in Iraq were dealt a blow yesterday when the country's feuding factions united in opposition to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shia leader designated to be prime minister. While talks were said to be continuing last night, the rejection of Mr Jaafari by Kurdish, Sunni and secular Shia factions meant that two months of agonising negotiations to form an administration following the country's historic general election had proved fruitless. Iraq's leaders were reminded of the urgent need for a strong government when bombers struck again in Baghdad and a leading Sunni politician, Adnan Dulaimi,...

Leaders of Sunni, Kurdish and a secular political party decided today to ask the Shiite alliance to withdraw its nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for another term, political officials said. The move is expected to draw sharp opposition from radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support enabled al-Jaafari to win the nomination by a single vote in a February 12 caucus of Shiites who won election to the new parliament. A political battle over al-Jaafari could further complicate efforts to form a national unity government – a key step in the US plan to begin withdrawing its troops this...

al-Jaafari's nomination to continue for four more years as Iraq's prime minister is already in trouble, according to Iraqi sources. "I doubt he will be confirmed," said a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shia political coalition that last week nominated al-Jaafari. The nomination by the UIA, the largest political group in the new Iraqi Council of Representatives, or parliament, was supposed to make confirmation a formality. But al-Jaafari is unpopular with the Kurds, the second largest bloc in the council. And his most powerful backer, anti-American Shia militant Muqtada al-Sadr, is anathema to another bloc, led by former...

In selecting al-Jaafari as its nominee for a second term, the dominant Shiite bloc has betrayed the hopes of all those who have wanted Iraq's first constitutionally elected government to make a fresh start at reunifying the country, rebuilding the economy and putting an end to the beating, torture and murder of civilians by Shiite militia members in and out of the official security forces. Jaafari has been a spectacular failure on all these fronts over the past 10 months. He is unlikely to do a better job if he gets the job a second time, particularly since he owes...

Our sources in Baghdad report Hamas leaders are making a point of being received and recognized by an Arab government backed to the hilt and sustained by the US government and army. Saudi Arabia and Iran are urging Jaafari to invite Hamas leaders as a show of independence. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources note: An invitation from the democratically-elected government in Baghdad to a democratically-elected Palestinian (terrorist) party would place the Washington in a cleft stick, after having initiated both elections. Cooperation between the only two elected Arab regimes would be hard to challenge. On the other hand, since Hamas is listed...

Shiite lawmakers chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari today to continue as prime minister in Iraq's next government, after a contentious internal ballot that exposed the growing power of anti-American fundamentalists within the new Iraqi Parliament. The selection of Jaafari, a moderate Islamist, is the first step toward the creation of a full-term, four-year government. They will now begin negotiating in earnest with the leaders of Iraq's other political groups to create a cabinet. That task, which is expected to take months, could be complicated by the surprise selection of Mr. Jaafari, who has been widely criticized for his tenure as prime minister...