Iraq shelves political talks
2006-04-04 22:09
Baghdad - Iraqi leaders shelved talks on Tuesday on forming a government despite a warning from the US and Britain against any further delay, as at least 23 were killed in violence across the country.
In another key development, Saddam Hussein was charged for genocide for the first time over his Anfal military campaign against Kurds from 1987-1988 that left about 180 000 people dead.
Talks on forming a national unity government were shelved despite stern warnings from US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart Jack Straw who left Iraq on Monday after an unprecedented two-day visit.
The formation of the first permanent post-Saddam government has been delayed due to bitter wrangling over key ministerial posts and the premiership, with non-Shi'ite factions opposing the candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
Splits
The political vacuum saw Rice and Straw voice their frustration at the lack of political progress, although the two refrained from any direct reference as to who should lead the cabinet.
Splits have appeared in the dominant conservative Shi'ite grouping, the United Iraqi Alliance, over the key sticking point of whether Jaafari should lead the new government.
"The ball is in the court of the alliance who have to take a final decision on Jaafari," a lawmaker from one of the key partners in the alliance, Mohammed Ismail Khazali of the Fadhila party, told AFP.
"I call upon a parliament session to decide on this issue as the alliance has been unable to decide till now."
Though the reason for Tuesday's shelving of talks were not announced, sources closes to negotiations said the Shi'ite alliance was holding intense internal talks to decide on the issue of Jaafari.
It was also not clear whether the talks would commence again on Wednesday.
Kurdish, secular and Sunni politicians from other blocs involved in government negotiations have indicated their dissatisfaction with Jaafari, blaming him for not being able to stem the violence or rein in sectarian tendencies of several ministers.
Optimism
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has supported the anti-Jaafari campaign.
"Our attitude towards Jaafari does not reflect that we are against his Dawa party of the Shi'ite alliance," Talabani told reporters on Tuesday.
Expressing optimism over the talks to form the national unity government, he said "all political blocs were keen for an early resolution and ready to make compromises".
He said the political deliberations will not take more than two weeks.
For the United States, a national unity government is essential to their plans for an eventual withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
23 killed
Meanwhile, the violence on the ground escalated with dozens of US and Iraqi casualties.
At least 23 people died on Tuesday in violence around the country, including a car bomb that struck eastern Baghdad.
Ten people were killed and about 25 wounded in the explosion of a car bomb parked in the al-Habibiyah neighbourhood, a security source said.
Police found 18 bodies around Baghdad, many of them tortured and riddled with bullets.
Dozens of bodies have been dumped in the capital in wake of the outbreak of sectarian strife since the February 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra.
The US military has also experienced one of its deadliest periods over the past few days, with at least 15 servicemen reported to have lost their lives in rebel violence and a flash flood.
Insurgents
Meanwhile, the Iraqi cabinet said three insurgents were killed, including one known as the "Prince of Princes", in an operation in Tarmiya, just north Baghdad.
The release gave no further detail about the "prince".
A court in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region sentenced to death 12 members of militant group Ansar al-Islam for numerous killings and explosions, an Arbil judiciary official said.