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'No to half-baked Iraq cabinet'
15/05/2006 14:16 - (SA)
Baghdad - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday said he would not support proposals to go ahead with the formation of a much-delayed cabinet without the appointment of the key defence and interior ministers.
He said: "The presidency does not wish to see the presentation of an incomplete government lacking the defence and interior posts."
He was speaking in response to calls for Iraqi prime minister designate Nuri al-Maliki to temporarily fill the seats in order to break five months of political deadlock.
Talabani said: "There is an agreement that these two ministries should go to independents on which all party lists agree.
"God willing, the new national unity government will be announced before the end of the week."
Interior ministry 'should go to a Shi'ite'
Bahaa al-Aaraji, an MP close to Shi'ite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr, on Sunday said that Maliki would keep the sensitive security portfolios in his own hands for the time being.
Maliki had until May 21 to announce his cabinet as Iraq's Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds vie for power in the future government.
In an important concession from the Sunni bloc, Iraq's Sunni vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi said the defense ministry should go to a Sunni member of the secular party of Shi'ite Iyad Allawi, whose members included both sects.
Hashemi said: "The interior ministry should go to a Shi'ite, but he should be approved by all the other lists. The defence ministry should go to Allawi's list and (the candidate) should be approved by everybody."
Hashemi's Sunni Concord Front had earlier demanded the defense ministry post.
- AFP
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