Monday, December 20, 2010Allawi to join cabinet
BAGHDAD: Former prime minister Iyad Allawi, whose cross-sectarian coalition won the most seats in Iraq's March election, yesterday said he will join Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki's government.
Allawi's decision, after weeks of wavering, cleared another potential hurdle in long and contentious negotiations between Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs to form a new government after an inconclusive election.
Al Maliki is to unveil his cabinet in parliament today.
The participation of Allawi and Iraqiya could help ease concern about renewed bloodshed as Iraq emerges from years of war and US troops withdraw completely by the end of 2011.
Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, had wanted to unseat Shi'ite premier Al Maliki after his Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in the new parliament with strong backing from Iraq's minority Sunnis. He had warned that any attempt to marginalise his coalition could reinvigorate a weakened but still lethal insurgency.
Washington and Iraq's Arab neighbours were anxious to ensure that Allawi's bloc was represented in the government.
Allawi said he would accept a job as head of a national strategic policy council that was offered in a power-sharing deal involving Al Maliki and Kurdish president Masoud Barzani on November 10.
"We will accept the leadership of this council based on the agreements that have occurred and have been signed between me and Barzani and Al Maliki," Allawi said.
Agreement
"So this is concluded. If there is any change to the agreements on power, then there will be a different story all together."
The Iraqi army, meanwhile, found a mass grave in the northern city of Mosul that contained the bodies of 11 people thought to have been killed in 2005, police said. The grave was found in the Intissar district of the city 350km north of Baghdad. In 2005 insurgents controlled a large part of the city, and policemen, soldiers and people suspected of working with the US forces were targeted for murder on a daily basis.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=294295
Allawi's decision, after weeks of wavering, cleared another potential hurdle in long and contentious negotiations between Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs to form a new government after an inconclusive election.
Al Maliki is to unveil his cabinet in parliament today.
The participation of Allawi and Iraqiya could help ease concern about renewed bloodshed as Iraq emerges from years of war and US troops withdraw completely by the end of 2011.
Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, had wanted to unseat Shi'ite premier Al Maliki after his Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in the new parliament with strong backing from Iraq's minority Sunnis. He had warned that any attempt to marginalise his coalition could reinvigorate a weakened but still lethal insurgency.
Washington and Iraq's Arab neighbours were anxious to ensure that Allawi's bloc was represented in the government.
Allawi said he would accept a job as head of a national strategic policy council that was offered in a power-sharing deal involving Al Maliki and Kurdish president Masoud Barzani on November 10.
"We will accept the leadership of this council based on the agreements that have occurred and have been signed between me and Barzani and Al Maliki," Allawi said.
Agreement
"So this is concluded. If there is any change to the agreements on power, then there will be a different story all together."
The Iraqi army, meanwhile, found a mass grave in the northern city of Mosul that contained the bodies of 11 people thought to have been killed in 2005, police said. The grave was found in the Intissar district of the city 350km north of Baghdad. In 2005 insurgents controlled a large part of the city, and policemen, soldiers and people suspected of working with the US forces were targeted for murder on a daily basis.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=294295
