Negotiators say final deal is near on Iraq’s new cabinet
May 6, 2005

By Khaleej Times:

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s all-important defence and oil ministry ministers are expected to be named at a meeting on Friday between winning Shiite bloc and Sunni negotiators after more than three months of haggling, political sources told AFP.

Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, a Shiite, will be named oil minister, Shiite MP Ali Dabbagh told AFP.

Ulumm held the post under the former US-appointed Governing Council in 2003.

The powerful defence ministry portfolio is expected to go to Saddun Dulaimi, a Sunni and the electricity ministry to Mohsen Shalash, a Shiite and Canadian exile, Dabbagh said.

“The defence and oil posts are about finalized,” said Laith Kubba, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) bloc.

Shiites and Kurds who won the January 30 election to a new 275-member parliament promised the defence ministry post to minority Sunnis, under-represented in parliament, in part because of their boycott of the polls.

The UIA has called for a national unity government in an attempt to bring all ethnic groups into the political process and end the country’s violent insurgency.

The delay in naming the defence minister resulted from the refusal by Shiite leaders to appoint Sunni candidates considered to have been close to the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

Sunni Vice President Ghazi al-Yawar boycotted the government’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday after a slate of names he had put forward was rejected, one of his spokesmen said.

Jaafari is also expected to appoint two more deputy premiers.

One could be filled by Abed Mutlak Jabouri, a Sunni and a former Republican Guard general. The other could go to an ethnic Turkman, Dabbagh said, without giving a name.

Jaafari and 29 other government officials were officially sworn in on Tuesday. The prime minister temporarily assigned other officials to fill empty slots in the cabinet.

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