BAGHDAD, April 4: Iraqi leaders shelved talks on Tuesday on forming a government despite a warning from the United States and Britain against any further delay. The talks were shelved despite stern warnings from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart Jack Straw, who left Iraq on Monday after an unprecedented two-day visit.
The formation of the first permanent post-Saddam government has been delayed due to bitter wrangling over key ministerial posts and the premiership, with non-Shia factions opposing the candidacy of incumbent prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
The political vacuum saw Ms Rice and Mr Straw earlier this week voice their frustration at the lack of political progress, although the two refrained from any direct reference as to who should lead the cabinet.
Splits have appeared in the dominant conservative Shia grouping, the United Iraqi Alliance, over the key sticking point of whether Mr Jaafari should lead the new government.
“The ball is in the court of the alliance who have to take a final decision on Jaafari,” a lawmaker from one of the key partners in the alliance, Mohammed Ismail Khazali of the Fadhila party, said.
“I call upon a parliament session to decide on this issue as the alliance has been unable to decide till now.”
Though the reason for Tuesday’s shelving of talks were not announced, sources closes to negotiations said the Shia alliance was holding intense internal talks to decide on the issue of Mr Jaafari.
It was also not clear whether the talks will commence again on Wednesday.
Kurdish, secular and Sunni politicians from other blocs involved in government negotiations have indicated their dissatisfaction with Mr Jaafari, blaming him for not being able to stem the violence or rein in sectarian tendencies of several ministers.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has supported the anti-Jaafari campaign.
“Our attitude towards Jaafari does not reflect that we are against his Dawa party of the Shia alliance,” Mr Talabani told reporters.
Expressing optimism over the talks to form the national unity government, he said ‘all political blocs were keen for an early resolution and ready to make compromises’.
He said the political deliberations would not take more than two weeks.
For the United States, a national unity government is essential to their plans for an eventual withdrawal of troops from Iraq. —AFP
