Naseer Al-Nahr
BAGHDAD, 4 May 2005 — Iraq’s newly elected government was sworn in yesterday amid escalating resistance attacks. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari pledged to unite Iraq’s rival ethnic and religious factions and fight terrorism.
“You all know the heavy legacy inherited by this government. We are afflicted by corruption, lack of services, unemployment and mass graves,” Jaafari told lawmakers after taking the oath of office before the National Assembly. “I would like to tell the widows and orphans ... your sacrifices have not gone in vain.”
One by one, Jaafari and members of his Cabinet walked to a podium and pledged to serve honestly and defend Iraq and its people amid a surge of resistance that has killed nearly 170 people in six days.
But five ministries — including the key defense and oil portfolios — remained in temporary hands and two deputy prime ministers’ slots were unfilled as Jaafari struggled to balance the demands of Iraq’s competing ethnic and religious factions.
Jaafari particularly wanted the defense minister’s job filled by a Arab Sunni as a way to draw the formerly dominant minority into the fight against an Iraqi resistance that is thought to be based primarily among Sunnis.
Former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi, a Shi'i and one of four deputy prime ministers, was given temporary responsibility for the key Oil Ministry.
More than two years after US-led forces drove Saddam Hussein from power, resistance persisted unabated yesterday, including a gun battle in Ramadi that killed 12 suspected Iraqi resistance fighters and three other people.
Jaafari had promised to form a government that would win over the Arab Sunnis, offering them six ministries and a deputy prime minister’s slot. But members of his Shi'i-dominated alliance rejected candidates with ties to Saddam’s regime.
After months of wrangling following historic parliamentary elections on Jan. 30, Jaafari drew up plans for a 37-member Cabinet that so far includes 15 Shi'i ministers, seven Kurds, four Arab Sunnis and one Christian. Two of the four deputy prime ministers were also sworn in yesterday, a Shi'i and a Kurd.
Jaafari blamed the delay in filling the remaining Sunni posts on divisions among themselves and predicted the matter would be resolved in two to three days.
“But we are not in a hurry,” he told reporters after the ceremony. “We want the choice to be accepted by all the Iraqi people.”
Further complicating negotiations are demands by Kurdish leaders for the Human Rights Ministry, which Jaafari had intended to offer to an Arab Sunni, lawmakers said. There has also been competition within Jaafari’s own alliance for the Oil Ministry.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, wished the new Cabinet well in its historic task “to achieve a unified democratic Iraq.”
Underscoring lingering divisions, however, many lawmakers stayed away from the ceremony, which took place in a half-empty hall inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. They included Ghazi Al-Yawar, an Arab Sunni leader and one of two vice presidents who earlier complained not enough Arab Sunnis were included in the new government.
Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'i whose caretaker government took charge of the country while Jaafari struggled to form his Cabinet, was also absent. His office said he was out of the country, but declined to specify where.
The new government will hold its first meeting within days, Jaafari said.
Meanwhile, investigators concluded that two missing US Marine fighter jets likely collided over southern Iraq, a senior US defense official said yesterday at the Pentagon. US officials in Baghdad said the body of one pilot was found and that the search for the planes was continuing.
Near the Syrian border on Monday, coalition forces tracked down and confronted suspected members of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the US military said. The fighting, which included a US air strike, killed 12 resistance fighters and injured a 6-year-old girl, the military said. Six coalition soldiers also were wounded, it said, without specifying their nationalities.
— With input from agencies