A Top Contender to Lead Iraq Negotiating for Kurds' Support

Government Details Judge's Assassination

Judge Barwez Mohammed Mahmoud Merwani served on a tribunal that is to try former members of Saddam Hussein's government. (File Photo)

BAGHDAD, March 2 -- A leading Shiite Muslim politician spent Wednesday negotiating with a Kurdish leader in northern Iraq in an effort to secure Kurdish support for his bid to become the country's first democratically elected prime minister in more than two generations.

Ibrahim Jafari of the United Iraqi Alliance, a predominantly Shiite slate that won a slim majority of seats in the new parliament, met with Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in the city of Sulaymaniyah. Jafari met with Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Irbil on Tuesday.

Jafari's spokesman, Adnan Ali, said the talks were progressing "smoothly."

"Both sides shared a common vision of the shape of the government," he said, adding that they had agreed "to include those who boycotted the election." Ali was referring to the Sunni minority that for the most part declined to take part in the Jan. 30 poll.

The alliance nominated Jafari for prime minister, but he needs the support of the Kurds -- who hold the second-largest number of seats in the assembly -- to win the two-thirds majority necessary to gain that post.

The Kurds are driving a hard bargain, several sources said, and ostensibly keeping their lines open to Jafari's rival for the job, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

"As far as our position is concerned," said Barham Salih, a Kurdish politician and interim deputy prime minister, "we have not made a decision which way to go."

If the alliance maintains its unity, several Iraqis observing the negotiations said, Allawi is a long shot to overtake Jafari. With 40 of the assembly's 275 seats, Allawi's party would need not only the Kurds' 75 votes but also the help of other parties in order to match the alliance's 140 seats.

"He's got no chance, the numbers don't add up," Sabah Kadhim, an Interior Ministry adviser, said about Allawi. "He's going to negotiate with a dozen little parties? What kind of government would that be?"

Some Iraqis have grown increasingly impatient that the process has taken so long.

"It's unfortunate that it's over a month that we had the successful election and we don't have a government yet," Kadhim said. He said the delay has affected "the business of the government" because many projects are awaiting approval of the new government.

Meanwhile, the son of an Iraqi judge who was assassinated Tuesday said in an interview with Reuters that he was certain his father's killing stemmed from his work on the Iraqi special tribunal, a court set up to try members of deposed president Saddam Hussein's government.

An Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the judge, Barwez Mohammed Mahmoud Merwani, 59, and another of his sons, Aryan Barwez Mohammed Merwani, 26, were getting into their car to head to work at the tribunal when three attackers ambushed them.

"We knew this was coming because of my father's work," said Maryon Barwez Mohammed Merwani. "He and my brother died holding their heads up high. This gives me comfort."

The judge was killed shortly before two car bombs exploded within an hour of each other Wednesday morning in Baghdad, leaving at least 12 people dead. A group led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born insurgent leader, purportedly asserted responsibility for at least one of the attacks in an Internet posting, the Associated Press reported.

In other developments, an Iraqi army spokesman in the northern city of Kirkuk said Iraqi forces on Monday arrested Muhammed Wasmi Obaidi, a former Baath Party member suspected of leading armed operations against Iraqi and multinational forces. Two other insurgents believed responsible for using stolen automobiles as car bombs were also captured, said the spokesman, Col. Khalil Omar.

Special correspondents Sahar Nageeb, Khalid Saffar and Omar Fekeiki in Baghdad and Marwan Anie in Kirkuk contributed to this report.