Iraqi politicians urged to fill government positions quickly

IRAQI politicians were urged yesterday to speed up negotiations to form a new government.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that while it is up to the Iraqi people to chose their own leaders, the international backers who have spent blood and money to end a dictatorship have a right to expect that it will happen quickly.

Neither pointed to any specific accomplishment from a day-and-a-half spent huddling with nearly all of Iraq’s squabbling factions. But they said their message that Iraq must quickly form a government of national unity got through.

The political wrangling has continued against a backdrop of sectarian violence, which has escalated since a February 22 bombing of an important Shi’ite shrine in Samarra and reprisal attacks against Sunni institutions.

A truck bomb exploded yesterday near a Shi’ite mosque in north-eastern Baghdad.

At least 10 people were killed and 30 others wounded, police said.

The explosion occurred at about 8pm local time (5pm Irish time) as worshippers left the al-Shroofi mosque after evening prayer in the mostly Shi’ite neighbourhood of Shaab.

The truck was driven by a suicide bomber, police said.

The US military also announced the deaths of nine American soldiers yesterday. Four were killed by hostile fire, while five others died and three were missing after their truck rolled over in a flash flood in separate incidents in western Iraq.

“We are entitled to say that whilst it is up to you, the Iraqis, to say who will fill these positions, someone must fill these positions and fill them quickly,” Mr Straw told reporters at a news conference.

“There is no doubt the political vacuum that is here at the moment is not assisting the security situation,” Mr Straw said.

Ms Rice said the troubles in Iraq called for a strong leader who could help unify the people of this war-ravaged land.

Current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the nominee of the Shi’ite bloc, has been widely criticised by Sunni and Kurdish politicians, whom the Shi’ites need as partners to govern.

Mr Straw and Ms Rice both spoke of the need for the next government to curb the power of sectarian militias alleged to have been behind the wave of reprisal killings of Shi’ites and Sunnis.

“You have to have the state with a monopoly of power,” Ms Rice said. “We have sent very strong messages” that there must be “a reining in of militias”.

Ms Rice stayed overnight in the fortified Green Zone, the first time she has done so. The move was intended to signal confidence in Iraqi security measures and counter the impression among Iraqis that high US officials swoop in to give orders and then quickly depart.

Mortar fire could be heard in the Green Zone as she dined with Sunni leaders and others.

Foreign leaders hope a unified government would have both a symbolic and practical effect, helping to curb the continual violence and pave the way for US and other coalition troops to begin heading home.

US officials have allowed it to become an open secret that Washington wants Mr al-Jaafari gone, and Ms Rice looked pained as she made small talk with him for a few minutes before the cameras were ushered out.

Talks among Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders have stalled, in part because of opposition to Mr al-Jaafari’s nomination by the Shi’ite bloc.