The US-picked Iraqi Governing Council, after weeks of delays, named a 25-member Cabinet yesterday, a move that could accelerate the return of some powers from the US occupation administration to local authorities.
The ethnic and religious breakdown of the 25 members showed the body was made up of 13 Shiites, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds (also Sunnis), one ethnic Turk and an Assyrian Christian.
Those numbers exactly match the ethnic and religious breakdown of the 25-member Governing Council.
The new foreign minister will be Hoshyar Zebari, who was spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party. The key Oil Ministry will be headed by Ibrahim Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, the son of Governing Council member Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, who on Saturday suspended his membership in the interim body because of the lack of security in the country and what he saw as the US' inability to protect prominent figures.
The elder Bahr al-Uloum cited the car bombing Friday in Najaf, the holiest Shiite city in Iraq, in which at least 85 people were killed, including revered cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim.
Nisreen Mustafa Siddiq Barwari, the only woman in the Cabinet, is a Kurd and was named minister of general works, which will be responsible for roads, bridges, and sewage systems.
The Governing Council, formed on July 13, had been promising for weeks that it would name a government. It was unclear what delayed the naming of the Cabinet, but several members of the council had spent much time after their appointment on trips throughout the world seeking recognition for the body as the legitimate representative of the Iraqi people.
US officials have voiced frustration at the slowness with which the council has gotten down to work, especially as regards taking a greater role in Iraqi security, reaching out to the people and, thereby, being able to gather intelligence that might block continuing attacks on American forces and prominent Iraqis.
The council said it had been prepared to announce the government list late last week but delayed because of the Najaf bombing.
Yesterday, the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera aired an audio tape purporting to carry to voice of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, in which he denied involvement in the deadly car bombing.
"Maybe many of you have heard the hiss of the snakes, the servants of the occupiers, how they accused us without any evidence of killing of al-Hakim," the voice said.
Al-Jazeera clearly did not broadcast the tape in its entirety.
The voice said Saddam was the leader of all Iraqi people, suggesting he would not launch an attack on any particular ethnic or religious group -- Shiites included.
"Saddam Hussein is not the leader of a minority or a group within a group. He is the leader of the great Iraqi people," the voice said.
The last audiotape purportedly from Saddam was broadcast Aug. 1. On that tape, the speaker said the former leader would "at any moment" defeat the American occupation forces and return to power.
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