Iraq's Dulaimi Named Defense Minister, Completes Cabinet
May 9, 2005

By Caroline Alexander:

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Saadun al-Dulaimi was yesterday appointed Iraqi defense minister and Bahr al-Ulum oil minister as Iraq's National Assembly approved the final six members of a national
unity government.

Abid Mutlak al-Jubouri, a Sunni Muslim, was named one of three deputy prime ministers and Usama al-Najafi, also a Sunni, was appointed minister of industry, according to the Web site of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Moshen Shlash, a Shiite Muslim, took the electricity portfolio, the Kurdish political party said.

Hashim as-Shible, a Sunni who served as Justice Minister in 2003, was named human rights minister, the PUK said. As-Shible turned down the post soon after the announcement was made saying that he objected to ``a cabinet chosen on sectarian and ethnic lines,'' Agence France-Presse reported. It isn't known who will replace him.

The appointments complete a 36-seat strong cabinet and end months of political deal-making that followed Iraq's Jan. 30 balloting for Assembly members. The transitional government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari must now draft the country's constitution and prepare for general elections by year's end.

Al-Dulaimi is one of nine Sunnis appointed to the cabinet as part of a post-election accord aimed broadening the appeal of al-Jaafari's Shiite-dominated government and correcting a balance of power resulting from a low Sunni turnout in the January poll.

Stem Insurgency

Iraqi politicians also say that a Sunni defense minister will stem a Sunni-led insurgency that has raged since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Supporters of Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, who lost their status when the regime fell, have been blamed for much of the violence in Iraq.

A former officer in Saddam Hussein's army, al-Dulaimi went into exile during the Iran-Iraq war and retuned to Iraq after the ouster of Hussein who had sentenced him to death and confiscated his assets, AFP said. He then set up the Baghdad- based Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, an analysis institute, which has conducted most of Iraq's public opinion surveys, it said.

Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum is the son of a Shiite Muslim cleric and a former oil minister. He has been re-appointed to head the energy ministry and is set to approve a number of contracts to rehabilitate the country's energy infrastructure that have been stalled for months by the delay in creating a
new government.

Source Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a1FogMg_GNkg&refer=top_world_news