.Iraq forms new government
Iraq on Saturday formed its first full term post-invasion government, a unity coalition aimed at uniting a country torn by sectarian bloodshed but still lacking permanent ministers in key security posts.
The cabinet of 37 ministers was approved at a session of parliament after being presented by new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who was confirmed in his post and announced a national plan to bring Iraq out of its security crisis.
Iraqis must "denounce terrorism" and "establish an atmosphere of love and tolerance," Maliki told parliament before he and his ministers were sworn-in, hands on the Qu'ran.
He also said the country needed an "objective timetable so that Iraqi forces may assume the security task in full and an end of the missions of the Multinational Forces and their return to their countries."
But underlining the pervasive threat of violence, 26 people were killed violence across the country, including 19 who lost their lives a bomb blast in Baghdad just hours ahead of the government announcement.
The blast hit the Shi'a-dominated district of Sadr City, also wounding 58 workers at a food stall where they had gathered for breakfast, the interior ministry said.
Maliki announced the government's formation more than five months after the general election, a wait that had raised concerns a power vacuum was allowing insurgents to seize the initiative.
However, his new government lacked permanent appointments for the ultra-sensitive posts of interior and defence minister after fierce lobbying from Shi'a, Sunni and Kurdish factions forced further negotiations.
In the meantime, Maliki will run the interior ministry while Sunni deputy prime minister designate Salam al-Zaubai will run the defence ministry for the next week. Zaubai was also named a deputy prime minister along with the Kurd Barham Saleh, who also becomes acting minister of state security.
The security portfolios are critical because of Iraq's raging insurgency and sectarian violence and President Jalal Talabani has said he would not support the formation of a government without security posts.
A handful of Sunni deputies walked out of parliament upon hearing that permanent security ministers would not be selected at the session.
In unveiling his 34-point government programme, Maliki highlighted the battle against terrorism and an eventual Iraqi takeover from coalition forces, but left the sensitive issue of sectarian militias as the last point.
On that issue, Maliki mentioned, as the final point of his program, that the government would aim at "implementing Law 91 relating to the militias," and which calls for integrating them into the official security structures.
Among other key posts, parliament approved former deputy parliament speaker, the Shi'a independent Hussein Shahristani, to be oil minister.
In a surprise move, former interior minister Bayan Jabr Solagh, who has faced criticism over Shi'a-led militias linked to the ministry, was given the finance portfolio.
Although Maliki is a conservative Shiite and the Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) swept the December elections, his government contains ministers from across the ethnic and confessional spectrum in a bid to bring unity to the country.
The minority Sunnis - dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and believed to form the backbone of the insurgency - are represented in the government.
Iraq's Kurdish minority are also strongly represented, most notably with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who stays in his post.
Iraq has also been dogged by a series of tit-for-tat interconfessional reprisal killings that have persisted since the bombing of an important Shi'a shrine in February, leaving hundreds dead and prompting warnings of civil war.
This has compounded the problem of the deadly Sunni-led insurgency which has turned bloody attacks and kidnappings of Iraqis and foreigners into a daily routine.
In other bloodshed on Saturday, at least five people were killed by a car bomb explosion at an Iraqi police station near the Syrian border, a defense ministry source said.
An Iraqi army captain and his wife were shot dead in their car by unknown gunmen in Baquba, 60km north-east of Baghdad. Police said the couple's three children were wounded.
The authorities found 15 bodies in the ethnically mixed city of Musayeb, south of Baghdad, a source in the defence ministry said. - Sapa-AFP
IOL
The cabinet of 37 ministers was approved at a session of parliament after being presented by new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who was confirmed in his post and announced a national plan to bring Iraq out of its security crisis.
Iraqis must "denounce terrorism" and "establish an atmosphere of love and tolerance," Maliki told parliament before he and his ministers were sworn-in, hands on the Qu'ran.
He also said the country needed an "objective timetable so that Iraqi forces may assume the security task in full and an end of the missions of the Multinational Forces and their return to their countries."
But underlining the pervasive threat of violence, 26 people were killed violence across the country, including 19 who lost their lives a bomb blast in Baghdad just hours ahead of the government announcement.
The blast hit the Shi'a-dominated district of Sadr City, also wounding 58 workers at a food stall where they had gathered for breakfast, the interior ministry said.
Maliki announced the government's formation more than five months after the general election, a wait that had raised concerns a power vacuum was allowing insurgents to seize the initiative.
However, his new government lacked permanent appointments for the ultra-sensitive posts of interior and defence minister after fierce lobbying from Shi'a, Sunni and Kurdish factions forced further negotiations.
In the meantime, Maliki will run the interior ministry while Sunni deputy prime minister designate Salam al-Zaubai will run the defence ministry for the next week. Zaubai was also named a deputy prime minister along with the Kurd Barham Saleh, who also becomes acting minister of state security.
The security portfolios are critical because of Iraq's raging insurgency and sectarian violence and President Jalal Talabani has said he would not support the formation of a government without security posts.
A handful of Sunni deputies walked out of parliament upon hearing that permanent security ministers would not be selected at the session.
In unveiling his 34-point government programme, Maliki highlighted the battle against terrorism and an eventual Iraqi takeover from coalition forces, but left the sensitive issue of sectarian militias as the last point.
On that issue, Maliki mentioned, as the final point of his program, that the government would aim at "implementing Law 91 relating to the militias," and which calls for integrating them into the official security structures.
Among other key posts, parliament approved former deputy parliament speaker, the Shi'a independent Hussein Shahristani, to be oil minister.
In a surprise move, former interior minister Bayan Jabr Solagh, who has faced criticism over Shi'a-led militias linked to the ministry, was given the finance portfolio.
Although Maliki is a conservative Shiite and the Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) swept the December elections, his government contains ministers from across the ethnic and confessional spectrum in a bid to bring unity to the country.
The minority Sunnis - dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and believed to form the backbone of the insurgency - are represented in the government.
Iraq's Kurdish minority are also strongly represented, most notably with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who stays in his post.
Iraq has also been dogged by a series of tit-for-tat interconfessional reprisal killings that have persisted since the bombing of an important Shi'a shrine in February, leaving hundreds dead and prompting warnings of civil war.
This has compounded the problem of the deadly Sunni-led insurgency which has turned bloody attacks and kidnappings of Iraqis and foreigners into a daily routine.
In other bloodshed on Saturday, at least five people were killed by a car bomb explosion at an Iraqi police station near the Syrian border, a defense ministry source said.
An Iraqi army captain and his wife were shot dead in their car by unknown gunmen in Baquba, 60km north-east of Baghdad. Police said the couple's three children were wounded.
The authorities found 15 bodies in the ethnically mixed city of Musayeb, south of Baghdad, a source in the defence ministry said. - Sapa-AFP
IOL
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