Iraq: Wrangling continues as Assembly prepares for second meeting

Hours before the second-ever Iraq National Assembly session, politicians have yet to pick a parliament speaker, with wrangling over bringing in Sunni Arabs - a step seen as key to quelling the Sunni-led insurgency – prolonging negotiations to form a new government.

A meeting late yesterday 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 today’s session.

“We need more time,” senior Sunni politician and assembly member Adnan Pachachi said.

Alliance negotiators said the Sunnis promised to agree on a name for the parliament speaker by noon today.

“If they cannot name someone, then the Alliance and the Kurds will choose the speaker,” said Alliance negotiator Abdul-Karim al-Anzi, attributing the delay to the failure of the Sunnis to agree among themselves. “The Sunni community doesn’t have a united position.”

Today was relatively quiet in Baghdad, where officials had warned residents to prepare for stepped-up insurgent attacks. During the first National Assembly meeting, on March 16, militants lobbed mortar rounds at the heavily fortified Green Zone in the city’s centre, where politicians held their meeting.

The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish coalition, which came first and second in the landmark, January 30 elections, have reached out to the Sunnis and to members of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s coalition, hoping to cobble together an inclusive national unity government.

But haggling over the level of participation of the Sunnis, as well as jockeying for Cabinet posts and efforts to iron out differences between the various groups have left Iraq without a new government almost two months after the election of the 275-member National Assembly. Politicians have until mid-August to draft a permanent constitution.

Early negotiations were held up by several rounds of talks between the Shiites and the Kurds, who eventually succeeded in hammering out a general agreement.

Some Iraqis have expressed frustrations with the drawn-out talks, which critics argued reflected the nature of sectarian politics in the new Iraq.

On Monday, interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, refused to accept the parliament speaker post, asking to be one of two Iraqi vice presidents instead, officials said. At least one other candidate also turned down the position.

Naseer al-Ani of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a main Sunni group, said the limited options facing the Sunnis – who have only a small number of members in the assembly – contributed to the delay.

Al-Ani’s party dealt a blow to the elections process when it withdrew from the race, but it is now participating in talks and wants to help draft the constitution.

Many Sunni voters also stayed away from the polls to boycott the election – or out of fear of attacks. But some have had a change of heart after the vote was touted as a success.

A front, formed after the elections to negotiate the Sunni Arab demands, named a five-member committee to participate in talks with the Shiites and the Kurds.

Issues like the number and names of ministries to go to the Sunni Arabs as well as the name of the candidates for these ministries and for a vice president remained unresolved. Some Sunni legislators want the same number of Cabinet posts as the Kurds.

Talks with members of Allawi’s coalition also have yet to produce concrete results.

The assembly will name a president and two deputies, who will in turn nominate a prime minister – although it is unclear when that will happen. The presidency is expected to go to Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani and the prime minister’s post to Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Alliance officials offered to name a Sunni Arab from their own list, Fawaz al-Jarba, to be the parliament speaker, a proposal that caused some Sunnis to accuse the Alliance of trying to impose their own members.

Sunni legislator Meshaan al-Jubouri said a Sunni who won an assembly seat on the Shiite-led ticket is not someone to look out for the interests of other Sunnis. “They are just looking for someone who would agree to everything they want,” he argued.

But al-Ani said the Shiites and the Kurds were sincere in their efforts to include the Sunnis, even though they didn’t have to.

Together, the Alliance and the Kurds have 215 seats in parliament – enough to make key decisions.

But their members say it would be short-sighted to go it alone, adding they are against marginalising any of the country’s groups.

Some Sunnis warn that an inadequate representation of their community will undermine the political process. Al-Jubouri said a group of Sunni Arab legislators threatened to walk out of the assembly if they felt their interests were being compromised.

Even more, he said, the Sunnis could use an article in the transitional constitution to veto the permanent constitution and scuttle the political process. Under the temporary charter, if two-thirds of the voters in three provinces reject the permanent constitution, it would fail to win ratification.

But the Alliance’s al-Anzi said it was unlikely that the situation would deteriorate that much.

“The Sunnis lost a lot by failing to seriously participate in the elections, and they realise they must take part in the government,” he said. “God willing, we think the coming days will see a lot of positive steps.”