Sunnis endorse al-Maliki

[ECH1969]

IRAQ'S top Sunni-led parliamentary bloc, the National Concord Front, has endorsed the Shiite alliance's choice of Jawad al-Maliki for prime minister.

"We welcome the choice of Maliki and believe that we can now form a national unity government in Iraq which will be non-sectarian," Mr Zhafer al-Ani, spokesman of the National Concord Front said.

The National Concord Front, with 44 seats in the 275-member parliament, and Kurdish parties had strongly opposed Mr Jaafari's candidacy, stalling the political process after December's national election.

The two groups blamed Mr Jaafari for failing to curb the raging sectarian violence that has engulfed Iraq in the last two months.

http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,18891476%255E401,00.html

[Teaser]

1. Juan Cole on Maliki

link

Maliki the Shiite Candidate

Breaking news: CNN is reporting that United Iraqi Alliance has informally decided to replace Ibrahim Jaafari with MP Jawad al-Maliki of the Islamic Dawa Party as its candidate for prime minister. The formal decision will be made on Saturday.

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Here are some documents from the Open Source Center of the USG on al-Maliki, beginning in 2002. Note that in 2004 he was a major spokesman for Islamic law being implemented in Iraq and expressed reservations about the Interim Constitution on those grounds. Likewise, he is obviously fairly anti-Israeli, wondering if Israeli troops were operating in Iraq disguised as US soldiers, and worried that Israelis might be able to own property in Iraq.

He is also a hardliner on debaathification and I don't think the Sunni Arabs are going to like him better than Jaafari.

Maliki played a major role in mediating between the US and Muqtada al-Sadr during the fighting of spring, 2004 (which killed Cindy Sheehan's son among many others).

The item dated December 17, 2002 is particularly ironic, since al-Maliki was warning that US policies might produce a civil war after the overthrow of the Baath government. And, he said, ruling an Iraq full of widows, orphans and heavy debt would be no fun. He might get to try.

[SlipperySlope]

2. Analysis please someone?

Is this good news or bad?

[ECH1969]

3. It depends on if they know something we don't

or if some kind of deal was made behind the scenes.

As of right now no one except those involved in the negotiations have any idea other then it means that we will see a new government tomorrow.

[stray cat]

4. A t this point any person the Sunnis and Shiites agree on

is potentially better for Iraq then the alternative. However, certainly not someone the US would have chosen.

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2239988