Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s plan to unveil a national unity Cabinet was in disarray yesterday as political parties squabbled over posts and the timing of the announcement was put in doubt.
While Maliki had been expected to name his entire Cabinet except for three sensitive posts linked to national security, politicians said that as many as half of the ministerial positions were still undecided.
The divisions come with no Cabinet having been formed since the March elections, as a Saturday deadline looms for a government to be in place.
“The problem is that many political blocs are all asking for the same post at the same time. Because of this, there is still no agreement,” said Khaled al-Assadi, a member of parliament (MP) in Maliki’s coalition who is seen as close to the prime minister.
“I can say that that only half the ministries have been decided so far,” he said. “The three security ministries will not be presented today, and they may not present the deputy prime ministers either.”
Even the time of the announcement was in doubt, with an adviser to Maliki and a government spokesman insisting it would be yesterday afternoon, while two lawmakers said the announcement would be delayed until tomorrow.
“Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will announce the Cabinet this afternoon, as planned,” Maliki advisor Ali Moussawi said.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also said Maliki would make the long-awaited announcement yesterday.
However, MP Hanaa Turki, from Maliki’s National Alliance, and independent Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman earlier said the announcement would be delayed until tomorrow, amid continued squabbling over posts.
Othman said the pan-Kurdish alliance, which holds around 50 seats in the 325-member parliament, had not yet decided on who its ministers would be.
He also said the Kurdish bloc, key to the formation of the Cabinet, would not take part in the government if Maliki did not approve deals the autonomous Kurdish region signed with oil companies without Baghdad’s initial approval.
The contracts were signed in 2004 but the government in Baghdad has refused to recognize them primarily because they are based on profit-sharing, rather than the per-barrel service fees which it prefers.
Earlier, politicians had said any Cabinet proposed yesterday would not include the naming of new ministers of interior, defense and national security, meaning Maliki would take interim control of Iraq’s security forces.
That is despite past criticism that he has steadily tightened his grip on power by grouping increasing responsibilities under the office of the prime minister.
Including Maliki’s own position and that of his three expected deputy prime ministers, the Cabinet will number 42, slightly larger than the previous one.
Maliki’s State of Law coalition won 89 seats in the elections, two fewer than the Iraqiya bloc of former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi. But neither won enough for a parliamentary majority. A power-sharing deal last month finally broke the deadlock, with Maliki being named prime minister-designate on Nov. 25 and given 30 days to name his government.
Assadi said the National Alliance, a Maliki-led pan-Shiite coalition, will control 17 ministries, while Iraqiya will hold nine. The Kurdish bloc will retain seven, with the rest divided among smaller groupings.
In return, Allawi demanded that pre-election bans on several of his bloc’s members for alleged ties to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s regime be overturned and a new statutory body be created to oversee security matters, with himself at the helm.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not