ARBIL - President George W Bush has made clear that he does not want Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain prime minister of Iraq in a move likely to increase hostility between the US and the Shia community.
Mr Bush has written to the Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shi'ite Alliance asking him to nominate somebody else for the post.
"The Americans are very firm about this," said a senior official.
"They don't want Jaafari at any price."
I wonder...
What kind of reception would there be to a demand from Helen Clark for George W to be replaced as President of the US on the grounds that he was a danger to world peace?
Quite, quite, laughable.
HELLO!!! HELLO!!! HELLO AMERICA!!!
HE WAS ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE. JUST AS FAIRLY AND AS HONESTLY AS YOUR PRESIDENT, IF NOT MORE HONESTLY.
GET OVER IT ALREADY!!
UPDATE 30/3/06
Curiouser and curiouser.
According to the Guardian Headline it was the UN representative...
U.N. Envoy Reportedly Seeks New Iraq PM
Monday March 27, 2006 11:01 PM
BUT...
...Shiite politicians to seek the withdrawal of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's contentious nomination for a second term, two aides said Monday.
The aides to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, had asked their boss during a meeting Saturday to personally deliver the message to al-Jaafari.
Out of the 161 tags from google there was only one reporting...
Washington, Mar 29: The White House denied reports from Iraq that US President George W Bush had told a top Shia leader that he opposed Ibrahim Jaafari as the country's next Prime Minister.
Bush spokesman Scott Mcclellan was asked about reports that Bush had written to powerful Shia leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim asking him to oust Jaafari as the next Premier.
"I don't think that's an accurate report at all, what you just described," Mcclellan told reporters yesterday asking about the reports.
"It is up to the Iraqi people to decide who the Prime Minister is," he said.
The reports say the letter was given to Hakim by the US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
But Mcclellan said, "I know of no letter." Hakim heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main party in the Shia United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) that won December elections.
SO, current count 160 for, 1 against. The one against comes from India yet... Fox News last report on the 'net is 25/3/06.
2 comments:
al-Jaafari wasn't elected as Prime Minister. There are not direct elections for an Iraqi Prime minister, rather the Prime Minister is selected by other elected officials.
al-Jaafari is oppossed by both Sunni and Kurdish groups, which, as I understand it, is preventing him from getting enough votes to be Prime Minister. This is preventing the formation of the Iraqi Government.
I would certainly imagine that the U.S. has at the minimum asked the Shiite parties to find some way to get a government formed. Amoung the options would be selecting someone else as Prime Minister. Whether the U.S. has specifically said they shouldn't choose al-Jaafari is more questionable, I would expect that the communication would be more in the lines of choose someone who can be appointed, which appears to eliminate al-Jaafari.
Dave, I accept your thoughts. I wish that were true as well.
The truth is that the only other outcome, if Jaafari is not appointed Prime Minister, is another election. The outcome of that? Yeah, I think that we might agree there as well.
In the meantime, the political situation is a faithful reflection of the state of the Iraq "nation".
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