BAGHDAD, March 28 -- A leading Sunni politician abruptly withdrew his candidacy for speaker of parliament on Monday, according to his aides, endangering the first planned filling of a top government post in a national unity coalition since the elections two months ago.
The withdrawal of Ghazi Yawar, president of the interim government, left the Shiite- and Kurdish-dominated coalition scrambling for another suitable Sunni early Tuesday, hours before a National Assembly session that was supposed to select the speaker.
Ghazi Yawar had been tapped as assembly speaker months ago.
(File Photo)
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Shiite and Kurdish leaders see an inclusive government as the only way to stop a two-year-old insurgency led by Sunnis, the third major ethnic group in the country. Sunnis dominated Iraq under the government of Saddam Hussein. Many boycotted the Jan. 30 elections that were Iraq's first democratic vote in more than a half-century, and Shiites and Kurds have had trouble since then lining up Sunni candidates for their coalition.
Yawar, tapped for the speakership weeks ago, said through aides Monday that he was no longer interested in the job. Instead, he was willing to take a position on a council that will select Iraq's prime minister, politicians said.
The 275-member National Assembly plans to meet Tuesday morning in what is only its second session. After the elections, lawmakers said they wanted to name Iraq's new leaders and cabinet by the second session.
The camp of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, has joined talks over the future government in recent days, one official close to the negotiations said. Kurds, who are largely secular in outlook, have been eager for Allawi to join in their government as a counter to the perceived religious tilt of the Shiite alliance, the largest bloc in the new assembly.
Government officials acknowledge the risk to morale and stability if the Shiite, Kurd and Sunni factions remain unable to close a deal on a government.
Like its largely symbolic opening March 16, the assembly's second meeting is to take place amid extraordinary security measures that essentially shut down central Baghdad. If the assembly does not elect a speaker, it will discuss the rules under which its business should be conducted, officials said.
It is not likely to reconvene for at least four days because of a Shiite religious holiday on Wednesday and Thursday, and then Iraq's two-day weekend on Friday and Saturday.
In Baghdad on Monday, the interim interior minister, Falah Naqib, told reporters he believed his country's security forces could be functioning adequately within 18 months, reinforcing projections from U.S. generals this month of a significant American troop withdrawal in 2006.
Speaking at a Baghdad news conference, Naqib pointed to statistics showing a drop of up to one-third in daily attacks this year.
His statement came on a day in which attacks claimed at least 12 lives, including seven people killed when a bomb hidden in the basket of a bicycle exploded on a southern road lined with Shiite pilgrims, police said.
In the Romanian capital, Bucharest, President Traian Basescu announced Monday that three journalists from his country had been kidnapped in Iraq. Two of the journalists work for Romania's Prima TV. An editor there received a telephone call from them saying they had been abducted, Romania's TVR1 television said.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, gunmen ambushed a police colonel at the entry of a bridge in an insurgent-ridden neighborhood, killing the officer and his driver, police said. A bomb exploded near a police patrol on another bridge, killing a police captain and his driver, police said.
In Fallujah, a western city under tight U.S. military control since November battles that were the most intense since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, Marines on Sunday began handing out compensation to families whose homes, shops and businesses were destroyed in fighting.
Mohammed Salih, who estimated damage to his shop at $15,000, said he received $3,000. "This builds one room and a bathroom,'' Salih said. "If we stay like this, we won't finish building until next year.''
Special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
