Iraqi Cabinet Approved, Though Divisions Linger

Iraqi lawmakers overwhelmingly approved an ethnically and religiously diverse Cabinet on Thursday, but gaping holes in the new administration and continued sectarian wrangling marred the historic day.

Five ministries, including oil and defense, received only caretaker chiefs. Two deputy premierships also remained unfilled, indicating that the long negotiations to seat the nation’s first freely elected government in half a century were not yet concluded.

Shiite Muslims will control the greatest number of positions in the Cabinet, a historic shift of power to Iraq’s majority sect after decades of domination by Sunni Muslims under Saddam Hussein.

Sunni legislators complained bitterly that of about 37 positions in the Cabinet, they had received only four appointments Thursday, though three more were promised in coming days.

Even Ghazi Ajil Yawer, the Sunni vice president who signed off on the Cabinet, said Sunni representation was insufficient in a government dominated by Shiites and ethnic Kurds, who won the most and second-most number of votes, respectively, in the Jan. 30 National Assembly election. Sunnis largely stayed away from the polls because of a boycott and security concerns.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, appearing pale and weary after nearly three months of talks on forming the Cabinet, urged legislators to have patience and be willing to compromise as the final appointments are made.

“This is the first step in building the new Iraq,” he told the assembly, which, despite the momentous day, was missing about a third of its legislators for reasons that were not immediately clear.

Jafari will head the Defense Ministry until a Sunni candidate can be found who passes muster with his Shiite slate, which controls a slight majority of seats in the assembly.

Shiite legislators acknowledged that they had rejected several Sunni nominees for defense minister as either unqualified or tainted by links to Hussein’s government. But Shiite lawmakers promised that unfilled Cabinet positions would be staffed within a few days.

Such promises were not enough to mollify one outraged Sunni legislator, Mishaan Jaburi, who likened the new government to an Iranian takeover. Sunnis are a minority in Iraq but had favored status under Hussein, and they fear that Iraq’s new Shiite leaders have too much affinity with neighboring Iran, where Shiite clerics hold the reins of power.

“Sunni Arabs have been subjected today to a deliberate sectarian expulsion” from the new government, an agitated Jaburi told reporters outside the hall where the assembly met. “This is not a government of national unity, but rather a government of the winners.”

Jaburi, who recently survived an assassination attempt, even publicly accused one prominent Shiite lawmaker, Jawad Maliki of Jafari’s party, of threatening to have him killed because of his outspoken criticism. Maliki had no immediate response to the claim.

Shiite lawmakers defended the allocation of seats to Sunnis and said they had given the Sunnis substantial clout in the government despite their snub of the elections.

“This is democracy: You cannot please everybody,” said Ali Dabagh, a lawmaker with the United Iraqi Alliance, as Jafari’s Shiite slate is known.

Ahmed Chalabi, a member of Jafari’s slate who was once one of the Pentagon’s favored Iraqi exiles, was named as one of four deputy prime ministers and acting head of the Oil Ministry. The appointment capped a political comeback for Chalabi, who last year had a falling-out with U.S. authorities and briefly fled the country amid counterfeiting charges, which were later dropped.

Appointing Chalabi to temporarily head the Oil Ministry was seen as somewhat controversial, given that it controls Iraq’s major source of revenue and that he was convicted in Jordan of bank fraud charges in the 1980s.

But bickering Shiite lawmakers could not agree on a permanent overseer for the ministry. Chalabi sought to play down the significance of his role, saying, “It’s only a short-term appointment.”

Excluded from the new Cabinet is outgoing interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite and a U.S. favorite whose slate finished third in January’s election. His bloc holds 40 seats in the 275-member assembly but failed to win a single Cabinet slot after talks with the victorious parties broke down.

“What we are witnessing is a government that distributes political shares in accordance with election results,” said Mofeed Jazaeri, who was minister of culture in Allawi’s government. “Thus it does not represent all segments of society.”

Allawi’s representatives have said they are happy to play the role of loyal opposition in the legislature.

The Cabinet was approved, 180 to 5, in a simple show of hands. A motion by a member of Allawi’s slate that would have forced a vote on each minister failed.

The one-third of lawmakers who didn’t show up for the session included President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Yawer and Allawi, who was said to be traveling abroad.

When the vote approving the Cabinet was announced, Shiite lawmakers broke into chants of praise for the prophet Muhammad and his family, as is customary in Shiite mosques.

Jafari’s Shiite slate was awarded at least 17 ministries, including oil and interior, which oversees internal security. Kurds received seven. One post, science and technology, went to a Christian. Seven women are among the new Cabinet members.

The formal hand-over of power from Allawi to Jafari’s new government is expected within days. Then the government will begin tackling its many tasks, including improving security and drafting a new constitution by the deadline of mid-August.

Legislators already are saying they may need more time to put together the constitution. A referendum on the document is scheduled for mid-October, and elections for a new National Assembly are supposed to take place in mid-December.

President Bush heaped praise on Thursday’s long-awaited naming of the Cabinet, saying the new government “will represent the unity and diversity of Iraq in the months ahead.”

U.S. officials have been pressing Iraqi leaders to complete the process, fearing that the nearly three-month delay in forming a government was providing renewed impetus to the nation’s insurgency. Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in violence.

Many Iraqis were also frustrated by the delay, and some were unimpressed that the government was finally taking shape.

“Sharing the pieces of the cake did not satisfy everyone,” said Hadi Mohammed Jawad, a 45-year-old boutique store owner in Baghdad. “I’m pessimistic that the government can fulfill the people’s demands.”

Others, though, were heartened that the process finally seemed to be moving forward.

“No one seemed willing to sacrifice for the common good, and everyone was seeking personal benefits,” said Talib Kadhim Jwad, a 61-year-old retired engineer.

“The government definitely lacks a lot. But maybe it’s a first step in the Iraqi future.”

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Times staff writers Caesar Ahmed, Suhail Ahmad, Raheem Salman and Shamil Aziz contributed to this report.

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Key players

Here’s a look at five of the top ministers in the new Iraqi government approved by the transitional National Assembly:

*--* Ibrahim Jafari, prime minister (appointed April 7), acting defense minister, Shiite Muslim - Age 57 - Physician, schooled at Mosul University; worked as a doctor in his hometown, Karbala - Senior figure in the Islamic Dawa Party, a group opposed to Saddam Hussein *--*

*--* Ahmad Chalabi, deputy prime minister, acting oil minister, secular Shiite - Age 60 - MIT graduate and mathematician - Left Iraq in 1958 and became one of the most high-profile opposition members in exile - Was a Pentagon favorite, but had a falling-out with U.S. officials; made a political comeback, securing a seat in the new parliament *--*

*--* Hoshyar Zebari, foreign minister, Kurd - Age 55 - Active in opposition contacts with the U.S. before the war - Has held the foreign minister’s post since September 2003 *--*

*--* Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi, finance minister, Shiite - Age 58 - MIT graduate in engineering; economics degree from Harvard - Wealthy businessman; previously a consultant to the World Bank and heads a London-based investment company, Pan-Arab *--*

*--* Bayan Jabber, interior minister, Shiite - Age 55 - Studied engineering at Baghdad University in the 1970s - Left Iraq amid a Hussein crackdown on Shiite political groups - Became minister of housing and reconstruction in the interim government *--*

*--* Breakdown of Cabinet: Shiite 16 Kurdish 9 Sunni 4 Christian 1 Undetermined 7 *--*

*--* Iraq’s ethnic/religious breakdown: Shiite 60% Sunni 20% Kurdish 17% Other 3% *--*

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters, CIA World Factbook