Baghdad, Iraq – Four months of political paralysis in Iraq ended Saturday when a newly convened parliament chose seven top officials to run the country’s first long-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein three years ago.
The prime minister-designate, Jawad al-Maliki, an outspoken advocate for the country’s Shiite Muslim majority, will have the task of mending a nation nearly shattered by decades of war, dictatorship and sectarian rivalry.
He is joined by a Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, and a Sunni Arab parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Meshhedani, in a government that reflects a lengthy debate over how power would be divided between the ethnic and sectarian groups that make up Iraq’s population.
“The great thing will be if I succeed in cementing national unity and regaining security, stability and services,” al-Maliki said at a news conference that followed the parliament’s meeting.
President Bush said Saturday that the new leadership will shoulder the burden for securing Iraq, but he did not commit to a drawdown of U.S. troops.
Al-Maliki has been given a month to form a Cabinet of officials who will run key ministries controlling the army, police and the country’s oil sector – a process that could be as difficult as choosing a prime minister was.
As the political developments were unfolding, U.S. military officials announced that five U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq. The military released few details, but four died when their vehicle was hit in a roadside bombing Saturday south of Baghdad.
The fifth soldier also died in a roadside bombing south of the capital, but it was not clear if it was the same incident.
Since Iraqis voted in parliamentary elections on Dec. 15, the process of forming a government has been stalled by charges of election fraud and a debate over whether incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari would be able to keep his post in the face of heavy opposition. As the politicians argued, thousands of Iraqis died in a wave of sectarian violence.
On Thursday, al-Jaafari bowed to heavy pressure from Sunnis, Kurds and some members of his own coalition and gave up his nomination to a new term.
