Deadlock as president fails to convene Iraqi parliament

Iraq’s president failed in a bid to order parliament into session by next Sunday, further delaying formation of a government and raising questions about whether the political process can withstand the unrelenting violence or disintegrate into civil war.

The deadlock came yesterday as snipers assassinated Major General Mibder Hatim al-Dulaimi, the Sunni Arab in charge of Iraqi forces protecting the capital.

Bombings and shootings killed 25 more Iraqis yesterday, ending a relative lull in violence. Officials also found four bodies.

At the heart of the dispute is a controversy over the second-term candidacy of the Shiite prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose most powerful supporter is the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The Sunni Arab minority blames al-Jaafari for failing to control the Shiite militiamen who attacked Sunni mosques and clerics after the February 22 shrine bombing in Samarra.

Kurds are angry because they believe al-Jaafari is holding up resolution of their claims to control the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

In an attempt to force a showdown in the dispute, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, announced he would order parliament to convene on Sunday for the first time since the elections in December and the ratification of the results on February 12.

Such a meeting would have started a 60-day countdown for the legislators to elect a president, approve al-Jaafari’s nomination as prime minister and sign off on his cabinet.

Talabani was mistakenly counting on the signature of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, who lost his own bid for the prime minister’s nomination by one vote to al-Jaafari.

Talabani had in hand a power of attorney from the other vice president, Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni, who was out of the country.

The Shiite bloc closed ranks and Abdul-Mahdi declined to sign, at least for now.

In an emergency meeting with Talabani yesterday, seven Shiite leaders rejected the president’s demand for them to abandon al-Jaafari’s nomination.

It remained unclear when parliament might convene, despite the constitutional directive that set Sunday as the deadline. Nor was it clear how the disagreement over al-Jaafari might be settled.

The president first issued the challenge on Wednesday in concert with Sunni Arabs and some secular politicians.

Talabani said: “We want a prime minister who can gather all the political blocs around him, so that the government would be one of national unity.”

Leaders of all Iraq’s major political factions scheduled a meeting for this evening in an attempt to untangle the religious and sectarian differences behind the crisis, deeply compounded by continuing violence.

The attacks underscore the dangerous leadership vacuum and fresh political infighting that have torn apart many tenuous political bonds among the country’s many religious and ethnic factions.

There were also increasing signs of a split in the Shiite factions, even though they managed to come together last night to reject the move to dump al-Jaafari.

Nevertheless, al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose backing had insured al-Jaafari’s nomination at the Shiite caucus last month, predicted a “quick solution” on approving a government.

“All obstacles to forming a national unity government soon will be resolved,” al-Sadr said after meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and acting Oil Minister Ahmad Chalabi in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Many of yesterday’s attacks targeted the country’s Shiite-led security forces, accused by Sunni Arabs of repeated abuses against them under the cover of fighting the Sunni-driven insurgency.

The government denies the accusations.

In Baqouba, a car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol exploded near the mayor’s office and a market, killing six people and wounding 23, including four patrolmen.

Elsewhere, two bombs went off in Baghdad’s notorious southern Dora neighbourhood. One targeted an Interior Ministry patrol, killing six Iraqis. A second exploded as a US patrol was passing, wonding five policemen, who were guarding a bank, and two civilians.

A US soldier was also killed on Sunday in the insurgency-plagued western Anbar province, the military announced, bringing to 2,300 the number of US service members who have died in Iraq since the war began three years ago.