After Weeks of Arguing, Iraq’s New Premier Named

Iraq’s new Kurdish president named a fellow foe of Saddam Hussein as prime minister Thursday, appointing Ibrahim Jafari, the leader of Iraq’s oldest Shiite Muslim party, to the powerful post.

President Jalal Talabani’s naming of Jafari ended nearly 10 weeks of political bickering among Shiite and Sunni Arabs and Kurds after the nation’s Jan. 30 election. The protracted process had angered and dispirited many Iraqis, who felt they had risked their lives to vote.

With the last of the government’s major posts now filled, politicians hope to accelerate reconstruction efforts and bolster security in the country. Jafari’s administration will be Iraq’s third since Baghdad fell to U.S. forces two years ago.

“We have done it,” said a beaming Barham Salih, the outgoing deputy prime minister, as he emerged from the National Assembly proceedings. Talabani, who was elected president Wednesday by lawmakers, took the oath of office at the session.

Now a reshuffled mix of many of the same politicians who have been in previous administrations will turn their sights to drafting a new constitution and holding yet another election to replace themselves, perhaps as early as December.

Jafari, who heads the Islamic Dawa Party, is expected to announce his Cabinet within two weeks.

“Today represents a big step forward for Iraq and a big responsibility for me,” he told reporters after Talabani’s inauguration.

Jafari spent more than 20 years in exile, including long stints in Iran, where he led a Shiite campaign against Hussein. Though his party is seen as advocating a conservative brand of Islam and has been accused of using bombings and other violence to achieve its aims, Jafari has a low-key, intellectual style.

Among the well-wishers Thursday was interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who had been noticeably absent from the previous two National Assembly sessions. In a private meeting earlier Thursday, he offered his resignation, officials said.

The U.S.-backed Allawi, a secular Shiite who hoped to continue as prime minister and whose slate won 40 seats in the 275-member assembly, declined to speak to reporters and kept a low profile during the ceremony. On Wednesday, his administration had come under sharp attack by assembly members, who vowed to investigate allegations of corruption.

Allawi’s slate will participate in the new government, “but I don’t know if he himself will actually serve in a post or not,” said Jawad Maliki, a chief Shiite negotiator and an assembly member.

At a ceremony inside the capital’s fortified Green Zone, Talabani recited a short oath to “work with devotion to preserve the independence and sovereignty of Iraq.” Minutes later, interim President Ghazi Ajil Yawer, a Sunni Arab, and interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite, were sworn in as vice presidents.

Afterward, members of the new government stood together on the stage, smiling broadly and shaking hands, as assembly members rose for an ovation.

Talabani made no mention of Jafari or his appointment as prime minister during the inaugural address. After the assembly had adjourned and television cameras left the room, Talabani hastily returned to the stage to announce that he had asked Jafari to form a government.

Colleagues say Talabani simply forgot, but some Shiite lawmakers grumbled that it might have been an intentional slight, reflecting hard-fought negotiations between Shiites and Kurds in recent weeks.

Jafari’s Shiite slate, the United Iraqi Alliance, won a slim majority of seats in the assembly, with Talabani’s Kurdish bloc second. The election put control of the Iraqi legislature in the hands of the two main groups repressed under Hussein.

Jafari’s appointment had been assured since late February, when the United Iraqi Alliance voted unanimously for him as prime minister. Jafari, who frequently tops polls as Iraq’s most respected leader, had actively campaigned for the post.

Talabani’s inaugural address reiterated the themes of his acceptance speech Wednesday. He called on Iraqis to unite to rebuild their country and fight terrorism. He reached across ethnic and sectarian lines to thank Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who tacitly backed Jafari’s slate, for insisting on the Jan. 30 election. And he called on Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, which was favored under Hussein and largely boycotted the balloting, to join the new government.

“It’s about time that our Arab Sunni brothers took part in building the new Iraq,” he said.

For Jafari, the next challenge will be forming a Cabinet of qualified ministers within the constraints of postelection negotiations. Eager to avoid leaving any party or ethnic group feeling so disenfranchised that it forms an opposition party, the new government is divvying up political posts largely along ethnic and religious lines.

Many of the top ministries have already been allocated. Shiites will take the Interior Ministry, Kurds will keep Foreign Affairs, and Sunnis will receive one of the top five, possibly Defense. The coveted Oil Ministry is up for grabs, but Shiite leaders say they are likely to control it.

Under one proposal, slates will nominate three people for each post and allow Jafari to make the final decision.

A Cabinet based primarily on political considerations rather than the skill of individuals may prove unwieldy for the new prime minister, a Shiite assembly member said.

“He might have some of the same problems Allawi did,” said the lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Allawi often had trouble controlling his Cabinet members, who were chosen after hotly contested negotiations among American and U.N. officials and members of the now defunct U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

Next, the government will turn to drafting a new constitution. The process is supposed to be completed by Aug. 15 but can be postponed six months.

After the constitution is complete, Iraqis must vote on it. If they approve the document, a new legislative election will be held.

If Jafari’s administration and the assembly are unable to win passage of a new constitution, the assembly will be disbanded and a new election held.

To start the process, officials said, a panel of about 55 assembly members is likely to be formed. It will consult legal experts, ordinary citizens and political and religious leaders for help in drafting the document.

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Times staff writers Suhail Ahmad and Zainab Hussein contributed to this report.