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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Kurdish leader named president of Iraq



 (The Spokesman-Review)
Mohamad Bazzi Newsday

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Iraq’s political deadlock is over, for now.

After seven weeks of backroom dealings, the Iraqi parliament Wednesday named Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country’s new president. It also named two vice presidents: Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shia Arab who is a leader of Iraq’s largest Shia political party, and Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab tribal leader who had served as interim president.

The three officials, who together make up the “presidency council,” will serve in largely ceremonial jobs. They are expected Thursday to appoint Shia leader Ibrahim Jaafari as Iraq’s new prime minister, the top government post.

The presidency council and premiership were divvied up by the two winning factions in the Jan. 30 parliamentary election: Kurds and Shias. Iraq’s new political landscape will be dominated by this Shia-Kurdish alliance whose main priority is to defeat the Sunni-led insurgency.

Beyond naming a government, the future of the Shia-Kurdish alliance is shaky. The Kurds, who make up a fifth of the country’s 25 million people, are worried about Shia religious parties trying to impose Islamic laws during the drafting of Iraq’s new constitution. Shias are resisting Kurdish demands for greater autonomy and for control over the northern city of Kirkuk, home to a tenth of Iraq’s oil reserves.

The conflict over Kirkuk is one of the most explosive in Iraq. It pits Kurds who were expelled from the city against Arabs who were brought in by Saddam Hussein’s regime to change the ethnic balance. More broadly, the Kurds’ demand to absorb Kirkuk into their autonomous region is viewed by Arabs as a threat to Iraq’s unity.

Many Iraqis were frustrated by the delay in naming a new government, and they are worried that the two factions will become deadlocked over the parliament’s next major task: drafting a new constitution. “Creating a government was very difficult for this parliament,” said Nabil Salim, an Iraqi political analyst. “Agreeing on a constitution is going to involve many more compromises.”

The 275-member National Assembly must create a constitutional committee, which can include Iraqis who are not in the parliament. This panel must oversee the writing of Iraq’s new constitution by Aug. 15. The draft constitution has to be put before a national referendum by Oct. 15. The referendum will pass if a majority of voters nationwide approve it, and if two-thirds of the voters in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces do not reject it.

If the constitution is rejected, the National Assembly will be dissolved and new elections held immediately. If the constitution is approved, a new round of parliamentary elections must be held by Dec. 15.

But Iraqis say the entire process probably will be delayed. “Four months is not enough time to draft a new constitution,” Salim said.