Iraqi politicians set to convene for historic parliamentary session

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi politicians set March 16 for the opening of the country’s first democratically elected parliament in modern history as a deal hardened Sunday to name Jalal Talabani, a leader of the minority Kurds, to the presidency.

The more powerful prime minister’s job will go to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a conservative Shiite who leads the Islamic Dawa party. His nomination, which the Kurds agreed to, has been endorsed by the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq – Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

“The agreement states that Jalal Tal-abani takes the presidential post and one of the United Iraqi Alliance members takes the prime minister’s post,” Azad Jundiyan, a Talabani spokesman, said.

He added the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance also reached preliminary agreement with the Kurds on their other conditions – including extending their territories to include Kirkuk.

Jundiyan said they wanted the deal on paper before going though with it, while alliance officials, including Ahmad Chalabi, said those negotiations were not over.

Baghdad’s new Shiite governor, Ali Fadhil al-Imseer, took office Sunday to become the city’s first democratically elected municipal official since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Provincial and municipal elections were held alongside national ones on Jan. 30.

In Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen killed a prominent Sunni Arab politician. Hana Abdul Qader, a lawyer and former member of Mosul’s previous city council, was shot while leaving her home, said Noor Al-Din Saied, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic party in Mosul.

U.S. soldiers assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Iraqi forces arrested more than 60 suspected insurgents in the city of Haswa, 31 miles south of Baghdad, on Saturday, the U.S. military said Sunday.

State-run Al-Iraqiya television also reported that Barham Saleh, a Kurd who is deputy prime minister for national security affairs, confirmed that the 275-seat National Assembly elected in January would convene March 16.

That is the anniversary of the 1988 Saddam-ordered chemical attack on the northern Kurdish town of Halabja, which killed 5,000 people.