Allawi in Battle to Keep Iraq Leadership

[leftchick]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=415895

BAGHDAD, Iraq Jan 15, 2005 — Ayad Allawi was handpicked by Washington as prime minister, but to stay in office he must get majority support in the parliament that will be elected in two weeks. That won't be easy.

Allawi is running on a ticket that's likely to be trumped by a rival one supported by Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric. And that ticket has its own candidate for the coveted prime minister spot a French-educated finance minister whose party has managed the difficult task of staying on good terms with both Iran and its nemesis, the United States.

Allawi, who forged close ties with the CIA in the last of his three decades in exile, came to office last summer amid high hopes of containing the insurgency and preparing for elections.

Since then, however, the violence has intensified and the credibility of the Jan. 30 vote is in jeopardy. Many of the country's minority Sunni Arabs, who held supremacy under Saddam Hussein, are unlikely to participate either because of deteriorating security or to protest the United States' perceived influence.



A personal security officer of Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi mingles among university students during the leader's visit to Baghdad University in Baghdad, January 16, 2005. Some students complained to Allawi about the situation in Iraq (news - web sites) and others cracked jokes with him during his high security surprise visit to the campus. REUTERS/Pool

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1. duplicate topic

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