Iraq gets new president - but not the American choice

The US and Saudi-educated head of Iraq’s Governing Council was named as president of the interim government today, after the Americans’ preferred candidate turned down the post.

The selection of Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer to the largely ceremonial post broke a deadlock over the makeup of a new Iraqi government set to assume power on June 30.

Council members had angrily accused the American governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, of trying to install Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister, over their opposition.

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said the two vice presidencies went to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, of the Shiite Muslim Dawa party, and Rowsch Shaways, speaker of parliament in the Kurdish autonomous region in Irbil.

The rest of the Cabinet was to be announced later, Brahimi said.

Soon after reports of al-Yawer’s appointment began circulating, explosions were heard in central Baghdad and smoke was seen rising from the green zone headquarters of the US-run coalition. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Most of the 22-member Governing Council backed al-Yawer, the current Governing Council president.

A graduate of the Petroleum and Minerals University in Saudi Arabia and of Georgetown University, he is a prominent member of the Shammar tribe, one of the largest in the Gulf region that includes Shiite clans. He enjoys the support of Shiite and Kurdish council members.

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor had earlier insisted the Americans have not shown a preference for Pachachi, a claim that many council members dismissed as untrue.

Details of the agreement were not clear, but if the Americans had insisted on Pachachi they would have risked a major breach with their Iraqi allies at a sensitive period as Washington prepares to hand control of a still-unstable, war-ravaged country to an untested leadership.

A Pachachi aide said the 81-year-old, also a Sunni, had been named president but immediately turned down the job. Council member Nasser Kamel al-Chaderchi said Pachachi apologised for the controversy surrounding the appointment and yielded to al-Yawer, 45.

Soran Othman, son of and aide to council member Mahmoud Othman, said Pachachi stepped aside because he understood that the majority of Governing Council members preferred al-Yawer.

The next Iraqi government must negotiate the legal basis under which the 135,000 American troops and other coalition forces will remain here under a sovereign Iraqi government.

In Mosul, al-Yawer’s hometown, crowds swept into the streets to celebrate the news, cheering and firing weapons in the air. American soldiers there appealed for calm.

During a recent television interview, al-Yawer, was sharply critical of the American occupation, blaming US ineptness for the deteriorating law and order. Al-Yawer also has denounced violence against American and other coalition forces.