In Baghdad, Rice Questions Iraqi Premier’s Leadership

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on an unannounced visit to the Iraqi capital amid a months-long political crisis, publicly questioned the leadership of interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, the strongest indication yet that the United States wants him out of contention as head of Iraq’s permanent government.

Arriving in the midst of a torrential rainstorm, Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conducted a series of private meetings with leaders of Iraq’s feuding political blocs.

“I don’t know who the prime minister is going to be and it’s not our role to try and determine who the prime minister is going to be,” said Rice, in response to a reporter’s question. Referring to Jafari, she said, “I do know that in the time since his nomination on Feb. 11 he’s not been able” to form a government.

Since the election of a new parliament Dec. 15, the nation’s political process has been paralyzed over the choice of a new prime minister, who would lead the government. Although the Shiite bloc to which Jafari belongs holds 130 of parliament’s 275 seats, it must win the support of some Sunni Arab or Kurdish legislators to form a Cabinet.

Jafari, disliked by many from both ethnic groups, won the nomination of his United Iraqi Alliance by a single vote, and Kurdish and Sunni groups have refused to join him in forming a government.

Last week, Shiite officials said, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad delivered a “personal message” from President Bush to the Shiite alliance leader, Abdelaziz Hakim, expressing hope that Jafari would step aside. U.S. Embassy officials have denied that, but a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity last week confirmed the message.

With no signs of the deadlock breaking, in recent days some in the Shiite coalition have begun to desert Jafari, calling on him to give up his quest for a full four-year term in office.

On Sunday, as Rice made the rounds in the heavily fortified Green Zone alongside the Tigris River, Jafari’s candidacy suffered another blow when a prominent Shiite cleric asked him to reconsider his nomination.

Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir, a lawmaker as well as a cleric, said in comments posted to his website that Jafari’s intransigence threatens “the leadership of the UIA ... and maybe it will harm the whole process.”

Saghir’s opinion is important in part because Jafari has portrayed himself as the candidate of choice of Shiite clerics. Saghir presides at one of the most important Shiite places of worship in Baghdad, the Bratha Mosque.

The cleric said Jafari’s continuing candidacy violates the bylaws of the Shiite coalition because 50 days had passed without Jafari winning over the Sunni Arab and Kurdish blocs.

Shiite calls for the interim prime minister to step aside came after Kurd and Sunni leaders last week formally reiterated their opposition to his candidacy and Jafari made last-ditch efforts to convince them that he should remain.

Shiites have decried alleged U.S. interference in the political process. But a former U.S. envoy said leaders in the Shiite coalition who are opposed to Jafari have asked that the United States put pressure on him.

“You have each side pestering the U.S., telling them to step in because they didn’t want to do the dirty work,” said the former diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.

The former envoy said that one Iraqi politician said, “The U.S. should go and form the Cabinet and tell us what the government should be because we’re like animals fighting for scraps.”

On Sunday, Rice urged Iraqis to choose a leader quickly so that the nation’s government could throw its weight into the fight against the insurgency and sectarian violence that claims an average of 90 casualties every day, most of them civilians.

Despite his fraying support, Jafari has given no indication that he is willing to step aside.

Rice noted the “difficult challenges” Iraq is facing, which include the growth of criminal kidnapping gangs. Rice said she and Straw had come to “urge that the negotiations be wrapped up and a government formed.”

“In terms of the message, the message is going to be that there really needs to be a government that is strong and a unifying force for the country, and that can act on the challenges that the Iraqi people face and act on those challenges expeditiously,” Rice said.

Over lunch, and again at dinner, the two diplomats met with Jafari and Hakim, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Sunni leaders.

Also on Sunday, in an interview with CNN, Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, suggested that resolving the leadership dispute would probably require convening parliament and letting all 275 members settle it.

But the former U.S. diplomat said Shiites refuse to go parliament because they fear a full vote would allow some members of their seven-party alliance to split off and form ties with Kurds or Sunnis.

“The worry about splitting up the alliance is that it would weaken the Shiites and let the Sunnis make even greater demands,” the envoy said.

Meanwhile, violence continued across Iraq and the U.S. military announced Sunday that the remains of two helicopter pilots whose aircraft had crashed Saturday had been recovered.

The Apache pilots were on patrol south of Baghdad when their helicopter went down, probably from hostile fire.

The military also reported that three U.S. soldiers had died Saturday -- two in a roadside bombing in Baghdad, and a third of noncombat injuries.

In the latest sign of growing Shiite anger toward the U.S.-led forces that invaded Iraq in 2003, authorities reported clashes between British troops and citizens in the Shiite-dominated south.

The office of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr said British troops had raided three locations in and around Basra, detaining 14 members of Sadr’s militia, known as Al Mahdi army.

“We do not want to be dragged into military confrontations but will behave wisely and will respond to the British aggression in a suitable time,” it said in a statement.

The governor of Maysan province, Abdul-Jabbar Waheed, called the British actions “barbarous and cruel.” British officials, speaking to members of the media at Basra airport, said troops were tracking insurgents who had attacked British and Iraqi security forces.

Officials said they released four of the militiamen, but held on to 10 on suspicion they were involved in criminal activities, including planting a roadside bomb that killed a schoolboy.

Two groups of British troops in Basra, one in a hotel, were attacked with mortars and rockets Sunday after British raids.

Authorities in Basra also announced the assassination of Omar Othman, the imam of Al Arab Sunni mosque in Basra’s old town neighborhood. He was killed by armed men on motorcycles, authorities said.

Othman’s father, a sheik at another mosque, was killed three months ago, the officials said.

North of Baghdad, in Baqubah, a Shiite mosque was destroyed Sunday by bombs planted inside before dawn.

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Times staff writer Borzou Daragahi and a special correspondent in Basra contributed to this story.