Iraq Watch: April 21, 2006

In Effort to Break Impasse Shiites Agree Upon New PM Candidate

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The largest Shiite bloc in parliament, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), on Friday agreed upon a new candidate for the prime minister position to replace outgoing PM Ibrahim al-Jaafari who relinquished his bid for a second term Thursday.

The Shiite party, who garnered nearly 130 of the 275 seats in Iraq's December parliamentary elections, chose Jawad al-Maliki of the Dawa Party to replace the often-divisive al-Jaafari.

The early responses to al-Maliki's nomination were positive. Leading Sunni and Kurdish politicians said they would not object to al-Maliki and would not attempt to block his nomination when it is voted on. Iraq's parliament is scheduled to convene Saturday.

Other top-level positions agreed upon Friday include president, two vice presidents, and parliament speaker. Kurdish statesman Jalal Talabani will remain as Iraq's president while the two vice presidents will be split between Sunni Tariq al-Hashimi and Shiite Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Also, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, is expected to be names parliament speaker.