Al-Yawer is Iraq's president
2004-06-01 10:13
Baghdad, Iraq - The Sunni Muslim head of the Iraqi Governing Council was chosen as Iraq's new president on Tuesday.
UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi confirmed that tribal leader Ghazi al-Yawar has been appointed as Iraq's first president since Saddam Hussein's fall and also named the country's two vice presidents.
Ibrahim Jaffari from the Shiite religious party Dawa and Roj Nuri Shawis of Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party were appointed as vice-presidents, Brahimi said in a statement.
The appointment of al-Yawer comes after the Americans' preferred candidate, former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi, turned down the post, council members and officials said.
The announcement breaks the deadlock over appointment of a new Iraqi government to assume power on June 30.
The confusing scenario unfolded after council members angrily accused the American governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, of trying to strong-arm the choice of Pachachi for the largely ceremonial post.
An aide to Pachachi said the 81-year-old former minister was named president but immediately turned down the post. Council member Nasser Kamel al-Chaderchi said Pachachi apologised to his colleagues for the controversy surrounding the appointment and yielded to al-Yawer, 45.
Soran Othman, son of an aide to council member Mahmoud Othman, said Pachachi stepped aside because the majority of Governing Council members wanted al-Yawer.
Although the Americans had favoured Pachachi, most of the 22-member Governing Council backed al-Yawer, a civil engineer educated in Saudi Arabia and the United States.
In Mosul, al-Yawer's hometown, crowds swept into the streets to celebrate the news, cheering and firing weapons in the air.
Earlier on Tuesday, council members said they expected a third name to be put forward. Some sources close to the deliberations suggested the choice could be Saad al-Janabi, who was close to Saddam Hussein until he fled to Kuwait and the United States in the 1990s.
On Friday, the most powerful post, the prime ministership, went to Iyad Allawi, a US-backed Shiite Muslim with military and CIA connections. The presidency was to go to a Sunni Muslim Arab. Both Pachachi and al-Yawer are Sunnis.
UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had hoped to complete the selection of the 26-member Cabinet by Monday. However, a Governing Council session that was to have chosen a president was postponed until Tuesday, with sharp differences remaining between the council and the coalition over the largely ceremonial head of state job.
- AP