BBC (Tuesday): Iraq poll winners 'nominate PM'

[Jack Rabbit]

From the BBC Online
Dated Tuesday February 15 13:16 GMT (5:16 am PST)

Iraq poll winners "nominate PM"

The Shia Muslim coalition that won Iraq's election has chosen Ibrahim Jaafari as its prime ministerial candidate, sources have said.

Mr Jaafari leads the Dawa party, one of two leading religious parties in the bloc that won nearly half the vote.

The United Iraqi Alliance lacks a parliamentary majority and will need to form a coalition government.

Read more.

[Roland99]

1. A bit of detail on Ja'fari...

http://iraqelect.com/index.php/archives/2004/12/29/ibrahim-al-jafari/#more-121
Al-Ja’fari joined the Da’wa party in 1968 but continued his education at Mosul University, earning a medical degree in 1974. Upon completing his education he returned to Karbala to immerse himself in political activity. As the conflict between the Da’wa Party and the Ba’ath authorities intensified in the late 1970s, Saddam Hussein resorted to political liquidations on a large scale, including the assassination of Ayatollah Al-Sadr. In 1980, Al-Ja’fari was able to flee to Iran. Unable to engage in political activities independent of the Iranian “party line,” Al-Ja’fari moved to England in 1989.

Free for the first time from the politically oppressive environments in Iraq and Iran, Al-Ashaiqer/Al-Ja’fari was able to return attention to the “Iraqi Shi’a identity” and was able to interact with other Iraqi parties in exile, offering innovative ideas about a democratic future for Iraq. In fact, the Islamic Da’wa party was able to establish what was termed as “flexible alliances” with other leaders in exile. Al-Ja’fari was instrumental in his party’s decision to take part in the meetings in 1991, in Beirut, of the national action committee which was the precursor of the Iraqi National Congress. His activities, inclined toward political pragmatism, were opposed by another wing of the Da’wa Party led by Abu Bilal al-Adib who supported the Iranian agenda.

Ja’fari as First President of Governing Council

During his term as the first president of the Governing Council Al-Ja’fari traveled to a number of Arab countries seeking recognition for the Council as a legitimate governing organ of Iraq in the face of its rejection by some of the least democratic countries in the Middle East such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. These governments have insisted that the only legitimate government in Iraq is an elected government by the people. In fact, the foreign ministers of the three countries met in Cairo on August 11 to declare that the Council does not carry the legitimacy for governing. These governments were supported by the Arab League whose Secretary General, Amru Moussa, could find nothing wrong with Saddam Hussein that deserved criticism. It was interesting that the Editor-in-Chief of the Egyptian weekly Al-Mussawar, Makram Muhammad Ahmad, who is reported to be close to “the presidency in Egypt” has sharply criticized the decision of the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher and the Arab League’s Secretary General Amru Moussa for failing to recognize the Governing Council and for rendering the role of Arab countries to that of a “spectator” of the Iraqi scene.

As a result of Al-Ja’fari’s and other Council members’ efforts, a number of Arab countries have decided to break ranks with the Arab League and recognize the Council. These include Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Kuwait, and a qualified endorsement from Jordan. In addition, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Romania, and Spain have all recognized the Council. In fact, a day before Al-Ja’fari’s arrival in Amman, newspaper editorials ridiculed the demand for an elected government in Iraq in the absence of one single elected Arab government to serve as an example for Iraq.


And an interview with Ja'fari:
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040811-030906-9371r.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. That was quick

Hussain al-Shahristani, himself an outside chance of being PM according to some reporters, said on the BBC last night that the UIA assembly members were going to meet 'in the next few days' to elect their preference for PM. Either he didn't know what was going on, or perhaps someone in Jaafari's camp is trying to make it look like a done deal. Since the assembly results are provisional (until they decide if any of the complaints, liek those about Kirkuk, are valid), I wouldn't have thought the UIA's choice could be set in stone yet.

[LinuxInsurgent]

3. so...if he's a political pragmatist...

let's get to the meat on the bone...is he inclined toward Wahhabi/Taliban/Iranian Theocrat restrictions on civil rights, especiall for women?

Or his selection a harbinger of something more akin to United Arab Emirates or Turkey.

That's really the question DUers wanna know.

[Igel]

4. His falling out with Iran doesn't speak poorly of him. n/t

[LynnTheDem]

5. So are Allawi & Chalabi fighting over the Presidency nom now?

Heh. :D

[Jack Rabbit]

6. No

The presidency is pretty much decided. It's going to Jalil Talibani from the Kurdish coalition.

[bpilgrim]

7. so our VP is gonna become the next Prime Minister of Iraq?

interesting...


Islamic Dawa Party

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a leader of the Shiite Muslim Dawa Islamic Party, will serve as one of two vice presidents in Iraq's interim government.

The IDP, once based in Iran, launched a bloody campaign against Saddam's regime in the late 1970s, but it was crushed in 1982. The group said it lost 77,000 members in its war against Saddam.

source: CBS

---

The strongest candidate to be the new Iraqi prime minister is undoubtedly Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the head of the Dawa party, which was the key opposition party to Saddam. He is from Karbala and studied medicine in Mosul. Dawa is very strong in southern Iraq and may now be the largest political party in the country. It will be the key party in the Shi'ite united list pushed by Sistani. Al-Jaafari was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council set up by the Americans. Currently a vice president, al-Jaafari is arguably the most popular politician in Iraq at the moment.

source...
http://matrix.bangkokpost.co.th/forums/print.php?Message_ID=6471

---

A somewhat more moderate al-Da’wa leader, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, refused to attend the US-sponsored leadership meeting near Nasiriyya on 16 April, saying he objected to cooperating with a US military administration. His view seems to have predominated in the party. Al-Da’wa organised the demonstration held on 15 April at Nasiriyya (pop. 535,000) to protest the conference being presided over by retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, head of the Office of Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction charged by Washington with administering post-war Iraq. Press reports said ‘thousands’ demonstrated. They chanted, ‘No, no Saddam! No, no United States’ and ‘Yes, yes for Freedom! Yes, Yes for Islam.’ Their placards read: ‘No one represents us in the conference.’ On 19 April, al-Jaafari signed a letter to a meeting of countries neighbouring Iraq, calling for the immediate establishment of a technocratic provisional government, suggesting that al-Da’wa remains less clerically oriented than other Shi’ite factions. Among the al-Da’wa leaders in Nasiriyya is the newly returned former exile, Muhammad Bakr al-Nasri, a prominent cleric. He is said to be the party’s ‘philosophical guide’. Al-Da’wa Party officials fear that they will be locked out of political competition by the superior paramilitary capabilities of SCIRI and the Sadr movement.

Vacuum filled

source...
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/twr151k.htm
peace