Shi’ites fail to agree on prime minister

SHI’ITE politicians failed yesterday to resolve the deadlock over their candidate for prime minister, which is blocking formation of a new government.

A bomb exploded on a minibus in a Shi’ite area, killing three people and underscoring Iraq’s grave security crisis.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s Dawa party and his key backer, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, continued to stand behind him, despite opposition to his nomination by Sunni and Kurdish parties, said Bassem Sharif, who attended a meeting yesterday of the seven Shi’ite factions. The Shi’ite politicians were to meet again today, Sharif said.

Mr Al-Jaafari, who won the nomination for another term during a vote in February among Shi’ite lawmakers, has refused to step aside several times.

“I respect opposing points of view, but they should remember the people who have elected them,” Mr al-Jaafari said.

Some Shi’ite officials suggested that the alliance block Sunni and Kurdish candidates for key posts if they do not accept Mr al-Jaafari. Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish statesman, said these were “unjustifiable threats”.

Sunni and Kurdish politicians said divisions in the Shi’ite alliance were making it difficult to resolve the al-Jaafari issue. These include the rivalry between al-Sadr’s group and the biggest Shi’ite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI.

Sectarian violence between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims has continued. In Mosul, gunmen walked up to a group of Iraqi soldiers and killed three, police said.

A Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq warned that Iraq would “drown in a river of blood” if a new government is not formed soon.

Iraq’s constitution says the largest bloc in parliament gets first crack at the prime ministership, subject to majority approval in the legislature. The Shi’ites, the majority in the country, won 130 of the 275 seats in December, making them the biggest faction but without enough strength to govern without partners.