Baghdad, Iraq – Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari struggled Monday to reach a last-minute consensus within his broad Shiite political coalition on a Sunni Arab to fill the key post of defense minister, while his new Cabinet prepared for a swearing-in ceremony today.
The political negotiations took place on another day of insurgent violence in which bombings killed more than 20 Iraqis, raising the death toll to nearly 140 since al-Jaafari announced the formation of his government last week.
Five Cabinet positions in the new Shiite- dominated government are reserved for Sunni Arabs, including a deputy premiership, and have been filled with candidates acceptable to both sides. The Sunni Arab nominee for a sixth position, minister for human rights, also is expected to be approved.
But al-Jaafari’s United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of several Shiite parties and independent individuals, has rejected several candidates for defense minister proposed by a Sunni negotiating committee led by Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer. Though some candidates were acceptable to al- Jaafari, others in the alliance rejected them because of their past association with the Baath Party of former President Saddam Hussein.
Sunni Arabs argued that such rejections are unrealistic since the Baath Party dominated political life for more than 30 years. In any event, the Sunni Arabs argued, their candidates had left the party years ago. Al-Yawer, the highest-ranking Sunni Arab in the government, said the candidates had been carefully screened.
Late Monday, a spokesman for al-Yawer said Sunni Arab Cabinet nominees planned to boycott the swearing-in ceremony if the defense ministry job was not filled beforehand.
“If our candidates are rejected again,” said Ahmed Najati, the spokesman, “the Sunnis will not go to the swearing-in.”
Though a minority, Sunni Arabs ruled Iraq for centuries until Hussein was toppled by the U.S. invasion in 2003.
The Sunnis also are seeking commitments that the new government halt the removal of former Baath Party members from government jobs; bring back Sunni officers to the army; move quickly to rebuild war-wracked cities such as Fallujah; and release detainees, including those held by U.S. forces.
In one attack Monday, authorities said, two policemen were killed when a suicide bomber handcuffed to his steering wheel slammed on his brakes to avoid a taxi and their police car rammed his explosives- laden vehicle in the Zayouna district of Baghdad. Police said 19 civilians were hospitalized, 12 of them with serious injuries.
Earlier, a bomb exploded in a car parked in a commercial strip in the upscale Karrada neighborhood, killing six people.
