Obama lauds inclusive Iraq gov't amid frictions

[November 12, 2010]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- President Barack Obama praised Iraqi moves to form an "inclusive" government on Friday, but the two-day-old deal was already looking fragile after Sunni lawmakers walked out of parliament, clouding the possibilities for working with Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Members of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc have accused al-Maliki's Shiite coalition of breaking promises under the deal, which aimed to overcome an eight-month deadlock and allow the creation of a new Iraqi government. Iraqiya lawmakers said they intended to press al-Maliki for explanations on Friday.

Members of the Sunni minority said they feared they were being squeezed out of a major role in power, fearing the new government would just be a continuation of the last four years of Shiite dominance with a strong role for the Shiite parties' ally Iran.

"We support the withdrawal of the Iraqiya list members from the parliament session yesterday," said Karim al-Obaidi, from the tribal council in Azamiyah, a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. "We don't want to repeat what had happened before when the former government gave promises ... but didn't fulfill its obligations."

The top cleric at one of Iraq's most important Sunni mosques said the power-sharing deal "copies the old sectarian and ethnic distribution of power and this brings us to square one."

"We are expecting another four hard years," the cleric, Abdul-Satar Abdul-Jabar, who is the imam of the Abu Hanifa mosque in Azamiyah, told The Associated Press.

The agreement ironed out Wednesday forming a government made up of all Iraq's main ethnic and sectarian political groups paved the way for a parliament session Thursday in which the first steps were taken toward forming the new government. Lawmakers re-elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as president, and he then asked al-Maliki to start putting together his coalition administration, a process that could take several weeks.

But the session was marred by the walkout by most of Iraqiya's lawmakers, including the bloc's leader, Ayad Allawi, the man who wanted the prime minister spot.

The agreement instead gives Allawi a position as head of a still-undefined council, although he has yet to publicly accept the post. It is still unclear what other positions the Iraqiya list would receive, but overall the deal fell far short of Sunni ambitions for greater political power after years of governments dominated by religious Shiite parties. Their hopes had been further raised because Iraqiya narrowly won the March 7 parliament elections, taking the most seats of any bloc but not a majority.

"By and large, the Sunnis are not getting that much," said Marina Ottoway, director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The Iraqiya were thrown a bone but it is not clear that there is any meat attached to the bone or not."

She said the true test will be whether Iraqiya receives any of the powerful ministries such as foreign affairs, interior or defense.

Washington has sought a greater Sunni role in the new government, fearing that otherwise disillusioned members of Iraq's Sunni minority could turn toward the insurgency, fueling violence.

At a press conference in Seoul, Obama praised the progress. "All indications are that the government will be representative, inclusive, and reflect the will of the Iraqi people who cast their ballots in the last election," he said.

"For the last several months, the United States has worked closely with our Iraqi partners to promote a broad-based government," he said. "Now Iraq's leaders must finish the job of forming their government so they can meet the challenges that a diverse coalition will inevitably face."

Obama was to speak Friday with al-Maliki, a day after speaking with Allawi, said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser. In his conversations, Obama "stressed the need for Dr. Allawi, other members of Iraqiya, and representatives from all of the winning blocs to hold leadership positions," Rhodes said. Obama made no mention of the Sunni walkout; a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity late Thursday because of the sensitivity of the talks downplayed the Sunni exodus from parliament. He attributed it to political showmanship but acknowledged the fragile nature of the agreement for the two sides to work together.

Washington was not the only country full of praise for the new government.

The head of the Guardians Council, one of Iran's top clerical ruling bodies, praised al-Maliki's return to power and described it as a blow to neighboring, mainly Sunni Arab countries who opposed al-Maliki.

"Under God's will, the Iraqi people showed their wisdom and vigilance," Ahmad Jannati said in a sermon during Friday prayers in Tehran.

Oddly enough, both the U.S. and Iran had been working toward the same goal: an al-Maliki to return to power. But they differed strongly on the degree to which the Sunnis would be involved in the new government, with Iran pushing for only token Sunni participation and the U.S. lobbying for a real partnership.

As al-Maliki accepted Talabani's nomination for a second term after the Sunnis walked out, it appeared Iran had prevailed.

The walkout began after lawmakers rejected a demand from the bloc that parliament vote on reversing decisions by Iraq's de-Baathification commission barring three of the bloc's members from government posts. Iraqiya says that under the agreement, the factions have committed to get rid of the controversial de-Baathification law entirely within two years. Sunnis view the panel, which purges former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling party, as a thinly veiled Shiite attempt to disenfranchise Sunnis.

The walkout may not derail the power-sharing agreement, but it underscored the deep mistrust Sunnis feel toward al-Maliki and his Shiite allies -- and indicated that the process of forming a government will be tumultuous and that any government that emerges could be deeply fractured.

"In the elections, the Sunnis gave up sectarian prejudice and voted for Allawi, who is a Shiite, at the hope of bringing down sectarian lines," said Abdul-Jabar, the cleric. "But now Iraqiya is deprived of its constitutional right and Allawi, who is not sectarian, was prevented from being the prime minister."

[Associated Press; By BUSHRA JUHI]

Associated Press writers Julie Pace in Washington and Ben Feller in Seoul contributed to this report.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.