Iraq cabinet talks stalled over top oil job, role of Islam
March 28, 2005

By Hi Pakistan:

BAGHDAD: Iraqi politicians fought over the oil ministry and the role of Islam in the next government on Sunday, while an al-Qaeda website posted a video of the purported execution of an Iraqi colonel.

In further violence, security guards opened fire on employees protesting salary cuts at the ministry of science and technology, killing one and wounding three others. Iraq’s parliament, due to meet on Tuesday, seemed far from a deal on a coalition government, as the country’s ethnic and religious factions bickered nearly two months after Iraqi election.

Parliament will try to put to a vote Tuesday the crucial three-man presidency council that will appoint the prime minister even if political parties cannot agree on the rest of the government, Shia negotiators said.

The Shia candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, sought to put an optimistic spin on the talks, despite the apparent deadlock on cabinet posts. "I think we are pretty much done and we will see a new government in the next few days," Jaafari told Iraqi state television.

Loyalists of al-Qaeda posted a video on their web site showing the execution of a man who said he was an Iraqi colonel. The man, who identified himself as Colonel Ryad Kateh Olyway, was shown being shot in the head blindfold by a masked man after "confessing" that he had "collaborated" with US forces in Iraq.

Elsewhere, guards at the ministry of science and technology opened fire on security guards who were protesting pay cuts, killing one and wounding three, an interior ministry official said. The official called the incident an accident. And north of Baghdad, a pipeline fire raged west of Kirkuk, a Northern Oil Company fireman said.

Meanwhile, US officials have voiced reservations over some of the names put forward to lead the defence and interior ministries in the next government, a member of Shia alliance said. "The American side has stayed away from the forming of the new government, but it has reservations over candidates that have contact or are in some way being influenced by certain neighbouring countries like Syria and Iran," said Fawaz al-Jarba when asked about the US involvement in picking the security posts. "I have heard them express these reservations," Jarba told AFP in an interview, declining to be more precise.

A US drone crashed north of Baghdad, the US military said, without specifying what brought it down. "An Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle crashed about 6 am, in the vicinity of Balad," the statement read. "A board of officers will investigate the accident."

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