Thursday, August 09, 2007
Jaafari to declare formation of new political front
Politics
(Al-Hayat) - Former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'fari is set to declare the formation of a new political front that will challenge Prime Minister al-Maliki's position, the London-based "Al-Hayat" reported on August 7. Sources told the daily that the front, which will reportedly be called the National Reform Grouping, will push to replace the parliamentary system with a presidential-parliamentary system similar to the French system, giving greater power to the presidency.
According to "Al-Hayat," al-Ja'fari has refused to acknowledge the results of the Al-Da'wah Party conference in May that elected al-Maliki secretary-general of the party. Since that time, al-Ja'fari has been working to distance his wing of the Al-Da'wah Party from al-Maliki's. Al-Ja'fari's new front will seek to contest upcoming governorate elections separately from the Al-Da'wah Party, the United Iraqi Alliance, and the soon-to-be-announced Moderates Front.
Al-Ja'fari claims that several other parties will be joining his grouping, including the Iraqi Islamic Party, representatives of the Al-Sadr trend, the National Congress Party, Al-Fadilah Party, the Union of Iraq's Turkomans Party, the Turkoman Democratic Party, and the National Democratic Movement. He also boasts of support from Sunni, Shi'ite, and Kurdish tribes and veteran secular political forces, as well as neighboring states, the sources said.
Labels: Dawa party, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Moderates Front, National Reform Grouping, Nouri Al-Maliki, United Iraqi Alliance
Friday, August 03, 2007
Islamic Group of Kurdistan suggest Sunnis participate in political alliance
Politics
(Kurdish Globe) - The head of the Islamic Group of Kurdistan (IGK) asks that Sunnis participate in any alliance among Kurds and Shiites. Ali Bapir, head of the IGK, said that the Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan does not agree that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) should establish a moderate alliance only with the Shiites.
The reason, according to Bapir, is that "the Shiites' situation is not good and other parties may be suspect of this alliance." The Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan consists of six members, but it still doesn't contain any Turkmen or Kaldo-Assyrian parties. A member of Kurdistan Parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that due to internal problems, the Turkmen and Kaldo-Assyrians have failed to elect their representatives for the council.
Dr. Fuad Hussein, head of Kurdistan Region's Presidency Office, stated that there is a plan to invite the Iraqi Islamic Party in case any new alliance is established. Meanwhile, Mohammed Faraj, a member of the political bureau of Kurdistan Islamic Union, whose party is a member of the Council of Political Parties, showed his unawareness about the content of the plan and said that they haven't seen the project yet.
A few months ago, Massoud Barzani, regional president of Kurdistan, headed a delegation to Baghdad, where he met with some parties that participate in the Iraqi government alongside Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President. According to Hussein, the history of the issue dates back to that series of meetings and that has resumed.
"For the purpose of establishing this alliance, until now negotiations have been made with the Supreme Council of the Iraqi Revolution, Da'wa Party," Dr. Hussein said. "There are efforts to negotiate with the Islamic Party of Iraq." Stating that these plans have yet to be implemented, Dr. Hussein refuted that the former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's recent visit to Kurdistan was for that purpose. Jaafari, who is head of the Da'wa Party, visited Kurdistan Region in mid-July and met the political leadership of the region.
During his post as the Prime Minster of Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari was accused of hindering the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which is about normalizing the situations in Kirkuk and other Arabized areas of the country and organizing a referendum at the end of this year. Allegedly, this very reason made the Kurds turn their backs on Jaffari.
Kurds attach a great importance to Article 140, since they hope the oil-rich city of Kirkuk again becomes part of Kurdistan Region. The referendum would be to decide whether people of Kirkuk are willing to be part of Kurdistan or not.
The reason, according to Bapir, is that "the Shiites' situation is not good and other parties may be suspect of this alliance." The Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan consists of six members, but it still doesn't contain any Turkmen or Kaldo-Assyrian parties. A member of Kurdistan Parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that due to internal problems, the Turkmen and Kaldo-Assyrians have failed to elect their representatives for the council.
Dr. Fuad Hussein, head of Kurdistan Region's Presidency Office, stated that there is a plan to invite the Iraqi Islamic Party in case any new alliance is established. Meanwhile, Mohammed Faraj, a member of the political bureau of Kurdistan Islamic Union, whose party is a member of the Council of Political Parties, showed his unawareness about the content of the plan and said that they haven't seen the project yet.
A few months ago, Massoud Barzani, regional president of Kurdistan, headed a delegation to Baghdad, where he met with some parties that participate in the Iraqi government alongside Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President. According to Hussein, the history of the issue dates back to that series of meetings and that has resumed.
"For the purpose of establishing this alliance, until now negotiations have been made with the Supreme Council of the Iraqi Revolution, Da'wa Party," Dr. Hussein said. "There are efforts to negotiate with the Islamic Party of Iraq." Stating that these plans have yet to be implemented, Dr. Hussein refuted that the former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's recent visit to Kurdistan was for that purpose. Jaafari, who is head of the Da'wa Party, visited Kurdistan Region in mid-July and met the political leadership of the region.
During his post as the Prime Minster of Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari was accused of hindering the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which is about normalizing the situations in Kirkuk and other Arabized areas of the country and organizing a referendum at the end of this year. Allegedly, this very reason made the Kurds turn their backs on Jaffari.
Kurds attach a great importance to Article 140, since they hope the oil-rich city of Kirkuk again becomes part of Kurdistan Region. The referendum would be to decide whether people of Kirkuk are willing to be part of Kurdistan or not.
Labels: Ali Bapir, Council of Political Parties of Kurdistan, Dawa party, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, IGK, Islamic Group of Kurdistan, Kaldo-Assyrians, KDP, PUK, Shiite Turkmen
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Al-Jaafari leads internal revolt against Maliki
Politics
(AP) - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faces a revolt within his party by factions that want him out as Iraqi leader, according to officials in his office and the political party he leads. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, al-Maliki's predecessor, leads the challenge and already has approached leaders of the country's two main Kurdish parties, parliament's two Sunni Arab blocs and lawmakers loyal to powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Jaafari's campaign, the officials said, was based on his concerns that al-Maliki's policies had led Iraq into turmoil because the prime minister was doing too little to promote national reconciliation. The former prime minister also has approached Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, proposing a "national salvation" government to replace the al-Maliki coalition. The Iranian-born al-Sistani refused to endorse the proposal, the officials said.
"Al-Jaafari is proposing a national and nonsectarian political plan to save the nation," said Faleh al-Fayadh, a Dawa party lawmaker familiar with the former prime minister's contacts. Other officials, however, said al-Jaafari had only an outside chance of replacing or ousting al-Maliki. But they said the challenge could undermine al-Maliki and further entangle efforts at meeting important legislative benchmarks sought by Washington. They spoke of the sensitive political wrangling only on condition of anonymity.
The officials would not give details of the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, saying only that it began two months ago when a Dawa party congress voted to replace al-Jaafari with al-Maliki as its leader. Al-Jaafari and other senior Dawa members are questioning the legality of that vote and the former prime minister has since boycotted all official party functions, said al-Fayadh.
The usually secretive Dawa, which is made up of two factions, has 25 of parliament's 275 seats but draws its strength from being a key faction of a large Shiite alliance. Ali al-Dabbagh, the government's spokesman, declined to comment on the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, arguing that it was a matter for the Dawa to deal with. "There should be no objections for a figure like al-Jaafari to try and put together a new political bloc provided that this will be of service to the political process," he said.
Al-Jaafari's own record in office was not any better than al-Maliki's has been so far, but al-Jaafari was widely perceived as an open-minded Islamist who is at total ease dealing with his American backers. To the Sunni Arabs he is courting now, the officials said, al-Jaafari was proposing a change in Iraq's sectarian, power-sharing formula. He wants the president's job, now held by Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to be given to a Sunni Arab to achieve a better balance between Iraq's ethnic and religious factions and to improve ties with Arab nations.
To win the support of the Kurds, al-Jaafari is pledging the implementation of a clause in the constitution that provides for a referendum before the end of 2007 on the fate of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq that the Kurds want to annex. To compensate them for the loss of the presidency, al-Jaafari is proposing that they fill the post of parliament speaker, now occupied by a Sunni Arab.
Al-Jaafari's bid to topple al-Maliki runs counter to ongoing negotiations to form what is being billed an "alliance of the moderates" that would include the country's four largest Shiite and Kurdish parties and independent Shiites. It excludes hardline Shiites and Sunni Arabs. It also comes at a time when al-Maliki is facing a threat by the largest Sunni Arab bloc to pull its ministers from his coalition unless he meets a long list of demands, which include overtures to minority Sunni Arabs, political inclusion and commitment to human rights.
Al-Jaafari's campaign, the officials said, was based on his concerns that al-Maliki's policies had led Iraq into turmoil because the prime minister was doing too little to promote national reconciliation. The former prime minister also has approached Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, proposing a "national salvation" government to replace the al-Maliki coalition. The Iranian-born al-Sistani refused to endorse the proposal, the officials said.
"Al-Jaafari is proposing a national and nonsectarian political plan to save the nation," said Faleh al-Fayadh, a Dawa party lawmaker familiar with the former prime minister's contacts. Other officials, however, said al-Jaafari had only an outside chance of replacing or ousting al-Maliki. But they said the challenge could undermine al-Maliki and further entangle efforts at meeting important legislative benchmarks sought by Washington. They spoke of the sensitive political wrangling only on condition of anonymity.
The officials would not give details of the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, saying only that it began two months ago when a Dawa party congress voted to replace al-Jaafari with al-Maliki as its leader. Al-Jaafari and other senior Dawa members are questioning the legality of that vote and the former prime minister has since boycotted all official party functions, said al-Fayadh.
The usually secretive Dawa, which is made up of two factions, has 25 of parliament's 275 seats but draws its strength from being a key faction of a large Shiite alliance. Ali al-Dabbagh, the government's spokesman, declined to comment on the rift between al-Maliki and al-Jaafari, arguing that it was a matter for the Dawa to deal with. "There should be no objections for a figure like al-Jaafari to try and put together a new political bloc provided that this will be of service to the political process," he said.
Al-Jaafari's own record in office was not any better than al-Maliki's has been so far, but al-Jaafari was widely perceived as an open-minded Islamist who is at total ease dealing with his American backers. To the Sunni Arabs he is courting now, the officials said, al-Jaafari was proposing a change in Iraq's sectarian, power-sharing formula. He wants the president's job, now held by Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to be given to a Sunni Arab to achieve a better balance between Iraq's ethnic and religious factions and to improve ties with Arab nations.
To win the support of the Kurds, al-Jaafari is pledging the implementation of a clause in the constitution that provides for a referendum before the end of 2007 on the fate of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq that the Kurds want to annex. To compensate them for the loss of the presidency, al-Jaafari is proposing that they fill the post of parliament speaker, now occupied by a Sunni Arab.
Al-Jaafari's bid to topple al-Maliki runs counter to ongoing negotiations to form what is being billed an "alliance of the moderates" that would include the country's four largest Shiite and Kurdish parties and independent Shiites. It excludes hardline Shiites and Sunni Arabs. It also comes at a time when al-Maliki is facing a threat by the largest Sunni Arab bloc to pull its ministers from his coalition unless he meets a long list of demands, which include overtures to minority Sunni Arabs, political inclusion and commitment to human rights.
Labels: al Sadr, Article 140, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Dawa party, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Kirkuk, Kurdish Coalition, Nouri Al-Maliki
Monday, May 14, 2007
Maliki chosen as Secretary-General for Dawa party
Politics
(Voices of Iraq) - The Dawa Party chose incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as secretary general, the official al-Iraqiya TV said on Sunday. Maliki was elected to the post and succeeds former secretary general and prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. The Dawa Party, which has 15 seats in the Iraqi parliament, is part of the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), the largest parliamentary bloc with 113 seats.
Labels: Dawa party, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Nouri Al-Maliki
