Iyad Allawi, a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party who worked with the CIA to topple him, was chosen as prime minister of Iraq on Friday in an announcement that caught US and UN officials off guard.
The US-selected Iraqi Governing Council agreed by consensus to name Allawi to take over from US-led occupation authorities on June 30 and lead his country to its first free elections next year.
UN and US officials in New York and in Washington appeared surprised by the announcement. Some questioned whether UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, charged with fashioning the Iraqi interim government, was part of the decision-making process.
"It's not how we expected it to happen," chief UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
But Eckhard said that "Mr. Brahimi respects the decision and is prepared to work with this person on the selection of the other posts in this interim government."
UN sources said the names of an interim president and two vice presidents could be announced as early as this weekend.
Allawi, a long exiled neurologist and businessman from Iraq's long-oppressed majority Shi'ite community, will be joined in the 30-member interim government by Sunni Muslims, Kurds and representatives of Iraq's other minorities.
Brahimi has been in Iraq for the past three weeks consulting with Iraqi factions and the provisional authority on the composition of the new government due to take over when the Governing Council is dissolved at the end of June.
Eckhard told reporters that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also respected the choice of Allawi and the word "respect" had been "carefully chosen."
"I assume this choice will hold, but the process isn't over yet," he said. "Let's wait to see what the Iraqi street has to say about this name."
Brahimi would now sit down with Allawi and discuss the other names that had emerged from his consultations, with an eye to choosing candidates for president, vice president and a Cabinet.
Brahimi was not expected to return to New York from Iraq for another week or 10 days to brief the Security Council on the new government's composition.
The choice of Allawi appeared to surprise the Bush administration, which is struggling to find a credible Iraqi leadership as it tries to end deadly attacks that have derailed efforts to stabilize the country in the year since the US-led invasion.
Asked if he could confirm Allawi would be the new prime minister, Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters early on Friday, "We have no position on any candidate at this moment because we are waiting to hear from Ambassador Brahimi and he needs time to complete his work."
Six hours after the announcement, an official in US President George W. Bush's administration said: "We thought [Allawi] would be an excellent prime minister ... I think that this is going to work."
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)