New Iraqi Government

[Texas Gentleman]

Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has been sworn in with 29 members of his cabinet, but the country's political impasse continues with key portfolios unfilled.

 

Mr. Jaafari was nominated as prime minister by the Shi'ite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, following January 30 elections. But he has struggled to put together a balanced cabinet with power distributed equitably among Iraq's three main ethnic factions.

 

Five ministries were held by "acting ministers," while two deputy prime minister posts were left empty.

 

The situation did not change, even as the partial cabinet was sworn in.

 

Despite an optimistic, inclusive speech, Mr. Jaafari left seven permanent positions undecided. Critically, the defense portfolio, promised to the Sunnis after months of post-election horse trading, has not been finalized.

 

So, Mr. Jaafari has taken charge of it himself, for now.

 

The Shi'ite bloc formed a governing coalition with the second-place Kurdistan Alliance, but the two were unable to agree on how to share power until three months after the elections. Disputes continue over how to include Iraq's Sunni Arab minority in the government in a meaningful way.

 

The Sunnis, the main base of support for Iraq's ongoing anti-U.S. and anti-government insurgency, are severely under-represented in the 275-seat National Assembly.

 

Prodded by religious leaders, most Sunnis boycotted the vote, either to protest the presence of foreign troops or out of fear of insurgent reprisals.

 

The handful of Sunni politicians who are on board, meanwhile, have run into severe resistance from powerful Shi'ite parties within Mr. Jaafari's bloc. The Sunnis say Mr. Jaafari has shown an understanding of their plight, but blame "radicals" among the Shi'ite for rejecting an inclusive political deal.

 

Prominent members of the Shi'ite bloc have rejected several Sunni nominees for alleged links to the former regime of Saddam Hussein and are calling for a purge of Baathists from Iraq's revived security forces. U.S. officials say large-scale purges could make Iraqi-US military cooperation extremely difficult.

 

Some of the new Iraqi Army's most effective units are led by former Baathists.

 

Mr. Jaafari says he intends to honor his agreement to give the defense portfolio to a Sunni. He says the remaining names for his permanent cabinet would be announced in two or three days.

[salim]

There some points that need to be highlighted

1- There is no item in the transitional law that calls for a broad governemnt, it is the absolute will of the winners "Kurds and coalition" to include all others on the bases of accepting the new governement political agenda

 

2- The problem with the delay of the Sunni ministers announcemant was that there names are not yet agreed by the different Sunni Arab factions.. Yesterday one representatives of the Alhewar Sunni group accused Alyawer, who was choosen to represent the Sunni Arab, of changing the names.. Alyawer representative , Mr. Ahmed Alshemary, replied that he didn't..

 

3- As for the Minister of defence, Aljaafreee turned down three of them.. The first , had his brother killed two months ago in a terror act. The Second was an officer in the Saddam secret police "Alamen", the herroble origanization who is responsible of killing hunderds of thousands of Irai, including brother of Aljaafree. The third was a commander of one units in the Saddam Army in the eightees that wipped out hunderds of Kurdish villages..

 

 

4- Having a duistracted governemnt is not a strange thing in democratic systems. However, bringing good Sunnis on board is a great push for the new governemnt efforts.

 

Security in Iraq today is number one task, the coalition and Kurds are risking their political future if they don't succeed in .. They need to be assure of how to manage it..

[Guest Mustefser]

http://www.alsabaah.com/modules.php?name=S...=&order=&thold=

 

 

A poll by Alsabah Iraqi news paper, on the intertnet though, so not very representing.. Showed security as no. one priority for the 1600 participants..

[Airedale]

Al Jazeera: Iraq Oil Ministry sacks hundreds

 

 

Iraq's Oil Ministry has sacked several hundred employees as part of a crackdown on corruption and smuggling that has cost the state billions of dollars, according to oil officials.

 

 

Wednesday's move, rare in the country's public sector, comes as the new government pledges to curb cronyism and corruption and restore basic public services hit by mismanagement and sabotage.

 

Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said around 450 workers suspected of selling petrol on the black market were fired over the past few months.

 

 

"They stole petrol and were a main cause of the fuel crisis that has gripped Iraq," Jihad said by telephone from Baghdad.

 

He said the former employees mostly worked at the pump but included managers and private operators who leased stations from the state and sold fuel on the black market instead of at subsidised prices of around one cent a litre.

 

....

....

...

A US State Department report said the crackdown, which was started by former oil minister Thamir al-Ghadhban, was part of efforts to clean up the oil industry, which was directly under the grip of Saddam Hussien before the war.

 

Ghadbhan has been holding handover meetings with Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, who was appointed deputy prime minister and acting oil minister last week until a political deal is reached for a permanent replacement.

 

Ministry officials privately say Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, who headed the Oil Ministry for nine months after the US invasion in 2003, remained the strongest contender for the position, although he was not named as expected when the cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday.

 

 

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C25...6AAC245D8EF.htm

[Guest Mustefser]

The head of Sunni clergy is calling for a meeting that include most of the Sunni Arab to prepare for the next ellections and to be specific on the demands by Sunni Arab.. He said that the current represntatives of Sunni Arab in the government don't really represent all of them..

 

Also Mrs. Jana Alubaidee , PM from Coalition Shia, denounced any relation with her for what the Sunday times had reported that she had called for Sharia and consideration of Koran as the only source. She said that these false allegations by some media is to creat some distrubancy toward the coalition..

 

 

I personally noticed such allegations on many web sites ,!!

 

اعتبر المشاركة في حكومة الجعفري «ملئاً للفراغ»... مؤتمر عام للسنة لتشكيل ائتلاف قبيل الانتخابات المقبلة

النجف, بغداد - فاضل رشاد, هبة هاني وعبدالواحد طعمة الحياة 2005/05/4

 

أعلن رئيس ديوان الوقف السني عدنان الدليمي انه يحاول «توحيد صفوف العرب السنة وجمعهم في ائتلاف واحد لضمان حقوقهم في الدستور والدخول بكتلة موحدة في الانتخابات المقبلة». واعتبر المشاركة السنية في حكومة ابراهيم الجعفري «ملئاً للفراغ لا اكثر"، مشيراً الى ان «الوزراء السنة لا يمثلون المجتمع السني».

 

وأضاف انه يُعد لعقد «مؤتمر عام لأهل السنة قريباً وتشكيل لجنة من أساتذة الشريعة والقانونيين وزعماء السياسة ورجال الدين لصوغ مطالب السنة وحقوقهم في الدستور الدائم، وتشكيل ائتلاف سني موحد تمهيداً للانتخابات المقبلة"، مشيراً الى ان «ديوان الوقف السني مؤسسة دينية تضم العرب السنة على اختلاف توجهاتهم وثقافاتهم». ونفى اعتبار هذه الخطوة «تقليداً للعرب الشيعة في تشكيل كتلة انتخابية واحدة تحظى برضى المرجعية الدينية العليا"، وقال انه «ليس مرجعاً دينياً بل موظف في مؤسسة دينية وأسعى الى جمع شمل السنة».

 

وكشف ان المؤتمر، الذي سيُعقد الشهر الجاري ستشارك فيه عشائر سنية من الانبار والموصل وبغداد وصلاح الدين بالاضافة إلى أحزاب وتجمعات سياسية.

 

واضاف الدليمي ان عدم وجود ممثلين للسنة في البرلمان الحالي سببه «عدم التهيئة والتنظيم وعدم توحيد الكلمة والشعور بالإحباط والعزلة لدى السنة، فضلاً عن الإرهاب الذي فعل فعله في المدن السنية وحال دون وصول أصواتهم الى صناديق الاقتراع».

 

الى ذلك، نفت جنان العبيدي العضو في الجمعية الوطنية العراقية عن قائمة «الائتلاف» أن تكون طالبت بإقامة حكومة إسلامية في العراق او جعل القرآن الكريم المصدر الوحيد للتشريع في دستور البلاد. وذكرت انها فوجئت بما نشرته صحيفة «ذي تايمز» البريطانية على لسانها في هذا الخصوص، كما نفت ان تكون رفعت مطالب تخالف حقوق المرأة، مشيرة الى ان الهدف من هذه «التلفيقات» عرقلة سير العملية السياسية من خلال ايجاد جو من التوتر بين نساء «الائتلاف» ونساء القوائم الأخرى وكذلك مع باقي الشخصيات النسوية خارج الجمعية الوطنية.

[Guest Guest_tajer]

http://www.aljeeran.net/viewarticle.php?id...pg=index&art=mp

 

In Arabic.. Look to the photo of first democratically elected governement in Iraq history.. In cluding Dr. Alshebli whom was some reports talked about his refusal to be nominated as a Sunni candidate.. He said that he would rather not accepted the position if he is considered as representing Sunni only!

[Guest Mustefser]

http://www.aljeeran.net/viewarticle.php?pg=economic&id=17151

 

In Arabic.. Iraqi visa credit card in action in Iraq.

[Guest Mustefser]

Interesting story by Omer

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

 

People inside and outside Iraq keep wondering why little progress is being made construction wise; why Iraqi cities still get poor power supplies? Why there is a deficiency in clean water in many places? Why sewer systems are incomplete? And a thousand questions like these are heard everyday.

I myself had similar questions but following the progress in one particular project gave me a better understanding of the situation and made me see some facts that I wasn't aware of.

 

The story began nearly two years ago in the summer of 2003 when an engineer friend of mine visited me at home; after a short random chat and a cup of tea he pulled out some papers from his briefcase and handed them over to me "could you please help me with some translation Omar?" he asked.

"Of course, what's this about?" I replied.

"The company I'm working for is trying to get a contract for preparing the location for a new power plant and I need to read and understand the tender" he explained to me.

 

Anyway, I translated the parts he wasn't able to understand; he thanked me briefly and rushed out to meet his boss.

A few months later, I was transferred to work in Basra, so passing by the construction site became something I do on regular basis as it lies just adjacent to the old "south Baghdad power plant" near the southern entrance of Baghdad.

 

 

The old six-unit south Baghdad power plant. The two new units are now situated to the right of the two shorter chimneys.

 

For over a year, I closely followed the progress of the work and I never allowed myself to sleep in that part of the 8 hour biweekly trip as some kind of strong passion appeared between me and that power station (sounds weird I know).

Later I got transferred back to Baghdad and began to pass through that street more often and every time I would drive really slowly to get more time near the construction site just to see if anything new had been added.

 

Recently, things began to take their final shapes; through out the past twenty months or so all I could see were vague metal and concrete structures that had no distinctive identity and it was rather difficult to know which was what.

A couple of months ago the two chimneys were all set. Shortly after that, fuel tanks were fully constructed in situ and just two weeks ago, the two giant turbines were set in place.

 

Last week, I met my engineer friend again and he told me that the two turbines will be experimentally operated on May 24 and if the experiment runs smoothly, the two new units would be connected to the grid adding 300 megawatts to the national power supply.

When I asked my friend how he feels about it he sighed and said:

 

"I feel really proud of being part of this; this time I wasn't working for material benefit only, I felt overwhelming happiness for doing something good in such a hard time. You have no idea my friend what we’ve been through to make this project work out. The work was suspended many times because of attacks; mortars hit the site three times, RPGs two or three times, small guns fire attacks happen every other while. We have lost 11 men in these attacks, 7 Iraqis and 4 foreigners and many others received death threats. It wasn't an easy job at all my friend. We also had to establish a 6 meter tall concrete wall to provide more protection for the workers and the station".

 

I was so touched by his story and we wondered together if people outside realize how the new Iraq is getting built. People here are working and at the same avoiding bombs and bullets. People head to their work stations every morning and they don't know what the roads are hiding for them. We went to the election centers not minding the risks of getting killed and Iraqi young men keep going to the recruitment centers although they realize that doing so might get them killed.

Many "experts" outside Iraq watch from a distance and enjoy counting our dead and they ignore what we're building here but I don't care because I believe that victory is near.

 

 

One of the two new units.

 

This gives a glimpse at what construction efforts face in Iraq, not to mention other factors like bureaucracy and corruption.

But let's take a broader look at the results; after two years of hard work, sacrifices and suspensions, the work is almost 100% done and next moth Baghdad will get more power and engineers like my friend will stand proud of what they accomplished but can anyone tell me what did they terrorists gain from attempting to stop the work!?

 

This short story represents one of a thousand unreported struggles where victory sided with our people and in the same way victory will be on our side in the greater war against the forces of darkness and terror.

- posted by Omar @ 23:15

[Guest NY-Time Article]

May 13, 2005

U.S. Presses Iraqi Government to Broaden the Role of Sunnis

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

WASHINGTON, May 12 - The Bush administration, increasingly concerned in recent weeks about the Iraqi government's failure to include enough participation by Sunni Muslims, is stepping up its appeals to broaden their role in the government or risk driving moderate Sunnis into the arms of insurgents, senior administration officials said Thursday.

 

They said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Robert B. Zoellick, had recently urged Iraqi leaders to try harder to widen participation by Sunnis. Ms. Rice spoke about the matter with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and other top officials in the new government, a State Department official said.

 

But a top administration official, asking not to be identified because he did not want to criticize Iraqi leaders publicly, said there was deep disappointment in the administration over the selection this week of a 55-member committee to write Iraq's permanent constitution. Only two members of the committee are Sunni Arabs, he said, the same as the number of Christians, who make up less than 5 percent of Iraq's population. The population is about 20 percent Sunni Arab, but most of them boycotted the election in January.

 

"There is a growing sense of alarm about this in the U.S. government," said the senior administration official. Despite discussion of the need for inclusiveness over several months, he said, there had been "a conscious policy to have a hands-off approach" in advising Iraqis about the formation of their government.

 

"You don't want to give the impression that this is a made-in-Washington government," he added. "But now there's a constant and continuing concern in Washington that this government is falling into a narrow ethnic base and needs to do more about that."

 

Among the conversations that Ms. Rice was said to have had with Iraqi leaders was a talk last week with Ahmad Chalabi, the former Pentagon favorite who as an exile leader pressed the United States to invade Iraq but later had a falling out with the administration.

 

Now Mr. Chalabi is a deputy prime minister and acting oil minister. Ms. Rice called to congratulate him last week and also to urge the Iraqi government to be more inclusive.

 

But the administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr. Chalabi had been "extremely unhelpful" in the effort to broaden the government. Mr. Chalabi had been a pronounced advocate of barring former loyalists of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party from the government, which has had the effect of keeping Sunnis out.

 

On the other hand, another diplomat not from the United States who is in regular touch with the Iraqi government said Mr. Chalabi had in fact met with dissident Iraqis, including some former Baathists, about joining the government and demanding a quick withdrawal of American forces. This diplomat said there were many former Baathists and others with ties to the former Sunni-dominated government of Mr. Hussein who had held discussions with Iraqi leaders about joining the new government, but that they had not been given jobs and were therefore helping to support the insurgency.

 

A separate administration official said that the work of attracting Sunnis had gone through progress and setbacks for months, and was not necessarily stalled.

 

The immediate fear among administration officials is that an ethnically skewed composition for the constitution-writing committee set up this week could lead to a constitution that Sunnis would see as marginalizing them. Iraqi law put forward during the American-led occupation calls for the constitution to be rejected if three or more states reject it, a provision that could kill the charter if Sunni Arabs vote against it in areas in which they are concentrated.

 

While pressure is being put on Iraq to include more Sunnis, the United States is also encouraging Jordan, one of several neighboring Sunni Arab countries, to improve its relations with the Iraq government and help it reach out to Sunni Arabs.

 

Jordanian help in that regard was discussed at a meeting last weekend among President Jalal Talabani, who is also a Kurdish leader, and King Abdullah II of Jordan and other Jordanian officials in Amman.

 

American and Jordanian officials said Thursday that they also discussed ways Jordan might bury its longstanding differences with Mr. Chalabi, who has been under indictment in Jordanian courts in bank fraud and theft.

 

Mr. Chalabi disputes his conviction in absentia in Jordan on charges that he embezzled $30 million from a Jordanian bank. The administration official said that Mr. Chalabi was trying to get Jordan to dismiss the case against him rather than accept a pardon, which Jordan has offered.

 

 

 

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Contact Us Back to Top

[tajer]

Bellow is an article about the visit by Iranian froegn minster to Iraq. The right title for the article should be "Kurd Sunni Forieng mister admitted Saddam's responsibility to the war " But such accurate title would not match what the writer is heading to..

First it was during a non offical speach by the Zybaree, seconfd this has nothing to do with Sunni Arabs in Iraqs , becuase 70% of solieders who was working in Saddam army where non Sunni arab. Third , if there is any harms by this statement , then the new governemnt, rollrd by Shia would pay for it, not the former Saddam's

 

 

Iraqi Government, in Statement With Iran, Admits Fault for 1980's War

 

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: May 20, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 19 - In a move that is likely to inflame further Sunni Arab resentments, the Iraqi government publicly acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that Iraq was the aggressor in 1980 when it touched off a bloody eight-year war with Iran.

In a joint statement at the end of a three-day visit by the Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi, the new Shiite-led Iraqi government said that Saddam Hussein, the overthrown Iraqi leader, and other officials in his government must be put on trial for committing "military aggression against the people of Iraq, Iran and Kuwait," as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

 

It was an effort to bring to a close the bitter legacy of the war in which nearly a million people were estimated to have died and tens of thousands more were displaced as refugees.

 

An Iraqi Foreign Ministry official who helped write the communiqué, Labeed Abbawi, said the admission was intended not as an acknowledgement of guilt on the part of the Iraqi state or people, who also suffered staggering casualties in the war. Rather, he said, it was meant to lay the responsibility for the war squarely on Mr. Hussein and other leaders of his government, many of whom face trials later this year for their roles in the killing of Iraqis.

 

"The file of the war, we want to put it behind us," he said. "We want to open a new path of cooperation."

 

Even so, it was a gesture of warmth toward Iran, which has long sought formal recognition of Iraq's use of chemical weapons against it during the war, and underscored how the political landscape here has shifted, with Iraqi Shiites, many of whom spent years in exile in Iran, now running the government.

 

The statement is not likely to sit well with Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who ran the country for decades but have been largely left out of the National Assembly, which will draft the new Iraqi constitution, since boycotting national elections in January. Shiites control the government for the first time in modern Iraqi history, and Sunni Arabs, isolated politically, have begun to chafe under their rule.

 

Sunni resentment has hardened recently, with a leading Sunni cleric accusing a government militia, made up largely of Shiites, of carrying out mosque raids and killings. On Thursday, two Sunni groups called for the temporary closing of dozens of Baghdad mosques as a protest.

 

"People will not accept it," said Saleh Mutlak, a member of the National Dialogue Council, a coalition of Sunni Arab political leaders, of the admission of responsibility for the war. "It looks like these people want to pay back the favor that Iran did for them," he said, referring to Iraq's new government.

 

Historians still debate the precise reasons for the start of the war between the two countries in 1980. It began during the Iranian revolution, and some experts say the new Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, agitated for a religious war to incite Iraq's large Shiite population to rebellion.

 

Others have accused Mr. Hussein of starting the war, saying he was seeking to capitalize on the chaos in Iran to overturn a 1975 agreement that fixed what he considered an unjust border in the Shatt al Arab, the waterway the two countries share at its southern end, and to seize the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan.

 

A United Nations investigation after the war effectively assigned responsibility for the start of the war to Mr. Hussein, said Farideh Farhi, a professor of Iranian politics at the University of Hawaii, but Iran's claims of huge sums in war reparations unresolved.

 

Ms. Farhi said the statement Thursday appeared to be directed more at Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons against Iran, an issue very important to Iranians. As the Iraqis drew up guidelines for the trials of Mr. Hussein and other Baath Party leaders, they decided not to extend prosecution to any crime perpetrated outside Iraq's borders, and Iranians want international recognition that they suffered under Iraqi gas and chemical weapons attacks.

"The issue for Iranians is not whether or not Iraq is identified as the aggressor," she said. "That was something that had been settled before. The issue that is not settled for them is the issue of war crimes. During the time the Iraqis were using chemical weapons on Iran, the international community was not willing to take a side on that issue."

 

Skip to next paragraph

 

 

 

Forum: The Transition in Iraq

Underscoring Iran's ties to the religious leadership in Iraq, Mr. Kharazi called on the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday. The Iranian minister's visit began on Tuesday, just two days after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Iraq.

 

Meanwhile, in an incident likely to provoke more anger among Sunni Arabs here, eight people, including guards working for a National Assembly member, Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba, were killed in a firefight involving American troops in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday. The American military said in a statement that an American helicopter had been called to the home of Sheik Jarba, and fired at gunmen it described as terrorists on the roof.

 

A gun battle ensued, the military said, and some members of the sheik's security force were killed. The statement did not say whether the men died in the helicopter fire.

 

Mr. Jarba said terrorists attacked his house as well as the car of some some relatives traveling nearby, but that in a case of mistaken identity American troops who responded killed three of his own guards.

 

Mr. Jarba said he did not witness the deaths of those three guards, but that his other guards told him they had been killed by the Americans.

 

Also on Thursday, a car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing two Iraqis and injuring six more, an Interior Ministry official said. Earlier in the day, gunmen shot and killed a senior official in the Oil Ministry, another in a series of assassinations.

 

Three American soldiers were killed, one in an attack on an American base in the city of Ramadi, and two others in central Baghdad, when gunmen attacked their convoy.

 

In another sign of just how far the relationship between Iraq and Iran has progressed since the administration of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was sworn in, the communiqué said Iran had agreed to open consulates in Basra and Karbala, Shiite-dominated cities in southern and south central Iraq. For its part, Iraq will open consulates in Kermanshah and Khorramshahr, cities in western Iran near the Iraqi border.

 

The communiqué pledged border security improvements, condemned Israel and, in a clear appeal to Iraq's Sunni Arabs, called for the participation of all nationalities and sects in the new government.

[Guest سالم]

نمودج لتقارير صحفيه متحفضه على زياره خرازي

ملاحضتي حول تعليقه حول زيارته للسستاني هو ان المقارنه غير وارده

فبيت السستاني كان مشرعا للجامعه العربيه والابراهيمي والامم المتحده واي زائر عدا المسؤولين الامريكان لانهم اعلنوا احتلال العراق من طرف واحد وهو انما يمتنع لانه لايريد ان يعطي الاحتلال صفه شرعيه , ليس كما يفعل دعاه مقاومه المحتل على الاقل

 

النفوذ الإيراني الأملس في العراق يتفوق على الأميركي الصلب

السبت 21/5/2005 بغداد-سكوت بيترسون- اصدر العراق وايران امس الاول بيانا مشتركا يلوم صدام حسين وتابعيه ويحملهم مسؤولية الهجومين العسكريين على ايران خلال الفترة من 1980 حتى ،1988 والكويت عام ·1990

ويعني البيان الذي اصدرته وزارة الخارجية العراقية في ختام زيارة وزير الخارجية الايراني كمال خرازي المرة الاولى التي يشترك فيها البلدان في اتهام الرئيس العراقي السابق بانه المعتدي في الحرب· وجاء في البيان:''يؤكد الجانبان على ضرورة محاكمة قادة النظام السابق في العراق في محاكمة عادلة، لانهم اقترفوا جرائم حرب وجرائم ضد الانسانية، وعدوانهم العسكري ضد الشعب العراقي، ايران، والكويت''· وعندما سئل فيما اذا كان مثل هذا البيان سيثير العرب السنة في العراق، قال عضو البرلمان جلال الدين الصغير:'' انه ليس العرب الشيعة هم الذين يتهمون الدكتاتور السابق بانه المعتدي في الحرب على ايران، لكن كل العراقيين كدولة ، والدليل ان وزير الخارجية سني''، ويقصد الاشارة الى هوشيار زيباري العراقي الكردي·

ومعروف ان الزعيم الشيعي علي السيستاني، لم يجتمع مع المسؤولين الاميركيين على الاطلاق· ولكن عندما وصل خرازي الى العراق مؤخرا، فتح له رجل الدين البارز الايراني المولد الابواب على مصاريعها· وكشف اجتماعهما عن الدفء الذي قوبل به وزير الخارجية الايراني في زيارته التي استغرقت ثلاثة ايام، والتي بدأت اشبه بعائلة اعيد لم شملها، وليس اجتماعا لقادة دولتين تقاتلتا طوال معظم سنوات عقد الثمانينات· كما اكدت الزيارة التي انتهت الخميس الماضي على مأزق السياسة الاميركية في العراق·

يقول كريم ساجد بور، محلل ايراني يعمل مع مجموعة الازمات الدولية في بروكسل، معلقا:''لدينا منحنيان مختلفان، ولا اعتقد ان الاميركيين وصلوا الى ادراك هذا الامر· فالاميركيون لديهم قوة صلبة في العراق، لكن لدى الايرانيين القوة الناعمة، وهم قادرون على فعل الاشياء· ونفوذهم اشد عمقا من نفوذ الاميركيين''· ويضيف ساجد بور:'' بالنسبة الى السياسة الاميركية، فسيكون من الصعب اقامة تحالف قوي مع العراق، واستعداء ايران في الوقت نفسه''·

ويقلل كبار المسؤولين الاميركيين الآن من المخاوف حول دور ايران في العراق، خاصة لو قورن بدور سوريا· وقال روبرت زوليك نائب وزيرة الخارجية معلقا:'' بالرغم من الروابط الوطيدة مع ايران، الا ان كبار المسؤولين العراقيين هم عراقيون اولا واخيرا· وثمة نفوذ بلا شك، ولكن ما يقوم به العراقيون هو مناشدة كل الجيران بان يكونوا داعمين''·

الى ذلك، قال المتحدث باسم وزارة الخارجية الايرانية حميد رضا آصفي إن إيران مازالت تريد تعويضات حربية من العراق رغم التحسن الاخير في العلاقات بين الجارين·

وقدر الايرانيون في الماضي قيمة التعويضات المتوجبة على العراق من جراء شن الحرب على ايران عام 1980 بحوالى مائة مليار دولار، فيما تقدر مصادر ايرانية اخرى قيمة الاضرار التي لحقت بايران بسبب الحرب بنحو الف مليار دولار· عن خدمة كريستيان ساينس مونيتور - الاتحاد الاماراتية

[Guest لماذا هم نعم ونحن لا]

لماذا من حق الولايات المتتحدة ان تعقد اتفاقا و احلافا مع اي دولة تشاء ، ولماذا يحق للدول اللاوربية انشاء حلف مع الولايات المتحدة ، ولماذا يقومون بانشاء السوق الاوربية المشتركة ثم الاتحاد الاوربي ولماذا ولماذا

كل ذلك من حقهم ولكن اذا اتفق العراق مع ايران لا لماذا ؟

متابع لبغدادي

[Guest Mustefser]

The PM spokesman calls for Syria to do more to block the terrorists.. He laso calls the Sunni clergy to condemn the attacks by the terrorists.

Liath Kubba, also refused the call by some Sunni crepresentatives to resign the Interrior minister for his success in followin the terrorists, he said that it is strange for some one who bycotted the polical process to ask such thing of resination of a minster.

 

He aslo added the the governemnt had established an account that would financed from the meny siezed with the terrorist to compansate the victims of terrists acts!

 

 

الحكومة العراقية تطالب زعماء السنة بايضاح موقفهم من العمليات ضد رجال الامن

 

بغداد 22-5 : طالب المتحدث باسم الحكومة العراقية اليوم الاحد زعماء السنة العرب في البلاد بايضاح موقفهم حيال استهداف رجال الشرطة والامن في البلاد بعد المؤتمر الذي عقده هؤلاء السنة في بغداد امس السبت.

 

وقال المتحدث ليث كبة في مؤتمر صحافي عقده الاحد "على زعماء المؤتمر ان يتخذوا موقفا واضحا ازاء قتل رجال الشرطة والعنف السياسي (...) لان من خلال العنف تمرر المؤامرات".

 

وقد دان المشاركون في مؤتمر جمع حوالي الف شخصية سنية في بغداد السبت "الهجمات علي الائمة والمصلين والمساجد واعتقالهم تحت غطاء القانون" وطالبوا "بتشكيل لجنة مستقلة للتحقيق في عمليات القتل والتعذيب التي يتعرض لها المعتقلون وباقالة وزير الداخلية".

 

واكد المجتمعون رفضهم الاحتلال، داعين الي "تحرير العراق بالوسائل السلمية" ومعتبرين ان "مقاومة الاحتلال شرعية".

 

واشار كبة الي ان البعض لم يعلق علي عمليات قتل عناصر الامن، معربا عن اسفه لوقوع "شبان عراقيين" ضحية للدعاية الدينية.

 

ودعا القوي والشخصيات الدينية والسياسية التي شاركت في المؤتمر الي ضرورة توعية العرب السنة بشان مخاطر اللجوء الي العنف.

 

وقال ان "توعية اهل السنة هي العامل الاكبر في الحد من العنف"، لان "الطرف الذي يدفع بهذا الاتجاه (العنف) لا علاقة له بالعملية السياسية وهو عدو للعراق".

 

وردا علي مطالبة المؤتمر باستقالة وزير الداخلية بيان باقر صولاغ جبر، قال كبة "من اللا معقول ان ياتي من لم يدعم العملية السياسية ولم يشارك في اي شيء في اخر لحظة ليطلب استقالة وزير"، في اشارة الي مقاطعة السنة للانتخابات العامة في كانون الثاني/يناير الماضي.

 

من جهة ثانية، انتقد المتحدث باسم الحكومة العراقية في المؤتمر الذي عقده في قصر المؤتمرات في وسط بغداد الحكومة السورية لعدم اتخاذها الاجراءات الكافية لمنع تسلل المقاتلين الي العراق.

 

وقال كبة "نحن لم نتهم الحكومة السورية بالتورط في هذا الامر واعتقد ان هناك انتقادا لان بامكانها ان تفعل المزيد".

 

واضاف "ليس من المعقول ان يمر قرابة 2000 شخص من الخليج عبر سوريا الي العراق امام صرخاتنا المتزايدة ولا يتم رصدهم او التبليغ عنهم".

 

وشدد علي ان امكانات الحكومة السورية تتيح لها ان "تعرف ما اذا كان هناك عراقيون في سوريا يديرون هذه العمليات"، مضيفا "ليس هذا صعبا" علي السوريين، ومشيرا الي انه "بامكان سوريا ان تعمل المزيد لاجل قطع الامداد المالي عن مطايا المفخخات" اي الانتحاريين الذين "يمرون عبر سوريا".

 

واعلن الناطق ان الحكومة استحدثت مشروع "صندوق ضحايا الارهاب" الذي سيمول من الاموال المصادرة من كل من يدعم الارهاب. ومن المفترض ان يغطي هذا الصندوق كلفة الاضرار المادية التي تحدث بسبب العنف والارهاب علي ان يقتصر عمل الحكومة علي ادارته ورعايته.

[Guest Guest_Tajer]

The "religious/Iranian" new governement of Iraq cancelled the the laws by the "Sechular" goverment of Saddam of prohibting selling alcoholics drinks in Iraq.. The law was issued during 90s !

 

I want to have a look into the faces of all those anti Iraqis freedom westren experts who kept calling Bush policy in Iraq as stupid!

 

داخلية" العراق تبيح بيع الخمور

 

 

رفعت وزارة الداخليّة العراقيّة أمس الحظر المفروض منذ أيّام الرئيس السابق صدّام حسين، على بيع المشروبات الكحوليّة في العراق. وأفاد مصدر قريب من موقع صناعة القرار في الوزارة العراقيّة، أنّها قرّرت أيضاً رفع الحظر على الملاهي والكازينوهات ومحلاّت بيع الخمور، معتبرة ذلك من الحرِّيات الشخصيّة للمواطن العراقي، وأنّ حظرها كان ضمن سلسلة الاضطهاد الذي كان يمارسه الرئيس السابق صدّام حسين. وأشار المصدر إلى أن وزارة الداخليّة اشترطت على الراغبين في فتح محلات بيع الخمور والملاهي الليليّة، أن يأخذ إجازة ممارسة المهنة منها ومن وزارة الصحّة أيضاً، وأوضحت أنّ القرار جاء في سياق إجراء بعض التعديلات على القوانين التي كانت تعمل بها الوزارة سابقاً.

[Guest Mustefser]

Iraqi Gov't Opens Channel to Insurgents

Posted by: Editor on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 06:13 AM

 

By HAMZA HENDAWI

Associated Press Writer

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A senior Shiite cleric said Wednesday that Iraq's government has opened indirect communications with factions in the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency and is trying to persuade them to lay down their arms and return to Iraq's political fold.

 

Hummam Hammoudi, 

chairman of a committee named by the National Assembly to draw up Iraq's constitution, also said Sunni leaders have been given until June 15 to select 13 representatives to join the panel's work.

 

Experts have long maintained it will be difficult to defeat the insurgency with military means alone. They stress the need for Sunni Arab participation in the political system, adequate reconstruction funds and job creation as key to weakening support for the rebels.

 

The Shiite-dominated government led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has been reaching out to the Sunni minority, such as encouraging them to help draft the constitution, but it had not previously said it also was communicating with insurgent factions.

 

In an interview with The Associated Press, Hammoudi gave few details on the nature of the contacts, which were confirmed by the spokesman for the Iraqi government.

 

"Some informal and limited contacts have been established with parties that we label as 'resistance,' so they can contribute to the drafting of the constitution," said Hammoudi, a senior member of Iraq's largest Shiite political party.

 

He said there had been an exchange of messages. "The contacts are becoming more promising and they give us reason to continue them," he added, without providing any details.

 

Al-Jaafari's Shiite predecessor, Ayad Allawi, was known to have opened channels to insurgents — mainly through tribal leaders in predominantly Sunni areas — and to have offered amnesty. But the effort had little impact.

 

Hammoudi said the new contacts were being cultivated by Sunni Arab members of al-Jaafari's Cabinet as well as Sunni community leaders known to have openings to insurgent groups. He declined to identify which Cabinet members were involved.

 

Government spokesman Laith Kuba and a key Sunni Arab legislator, Adnan al-Janabi, confirmed the contacts.

 

Kuba told the AP the overtures recently yielded "a step forward," but would not elaborate. Al-Janabi, one of only 17 Sunni Arabs in the 275-seat parliament, said the response from the insurgents was "positive." He also would not discuss specifics.

 

Both, however, made clear the contacts did not include radical Islamic groups such as terrorist chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been blamed for some of the worst bombings, kidnappings and other attacks.

 

Most insurgents are thought to be Sunni Arabs loyal to Saddam Hussein and hardcore members of his Baath party, who are angry over losing the dominance they held over the Shiite majority and Kurds. But there also are groups fighting for nationalist reasons or for religious motives as professed by al-Zarqawi's group.

 

Many Sunni Arabs, who account for 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, did not participate in the Jan. 30 election. Shiites and Kurds ended up with nearly all the seats, but their leaders have sought to draw Sunnis into government.

 

Hammoudi's 55-legislator committee is supposed to draft a constitution by Aug. 15. The charter would go to the voters in a referendum two months later and, if approved, serve as the basis for December elections.

 

Hammoudi said he told Sunni Arab leaders they could hold caucuses, in Baghdad and in the four provinces where Sunnis are a majority, to choose 13 people for his committee.

 

Since those representatives won't be elected legislators, they will have no voting rights on the charter panel, and a separate committee will be created to include them, Hammoudi said. That 68-member panel will decide by consensus and its conclusions will be adopted by the parliamentary group, he said.

 

Hammoudi said his committee has agreed on the core principles for the constitution, including federalism, a long-standing demand of the Kurdish minority, respect for human rights and pluralism.

 

The role of Islam could prove more contentious, but Hammoudi said he expected a stipulation making Islam the main source of law and a provision that the religion's tenets be respected in legislation should satisfy Islamists.