Iraq Shi'ite Bloc Says to Demand Prime Ministership

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050205/wl_nm/iraq_alliance_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Shi'ite alliance expected to win a commanding victory in Iraq (news - web sites)'s election will insist one of its members is appointed the country's next prime minister, a senior official in the alliance said on Saturday.



"Shi'ites want the prime ministership, we are insisting on it and will not give it up," Deputy Foreign Minister Hamed al-Bayati told Reuters. Bayati is a senior official in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).


SCIRI is a key player in the United Iraqi Alliance, a group of mainly Islamist parties that won strong support from Iraq's 60 percent Shi'ite majority in last Sunday's elections. If the alliance demands the prime ministership, it will be a blow to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi who had hoped to be picked again as a compromise candidate.


"The United Iraqi Alliance list has some candidates. The names are not finally agreed on yet because they are still discussing the qualifications and conditions of the prime minister," Bayati said.

[NNN0LHI]

1. The Iranians will be ecstatic over this development

Think about taking over 10,000 American casualties and spending 300 billion tax payer dollars to install an Ayatollah Of IraQ. There has got to be a joke in there somewhere. I sure know the Iranians are laughing about something. Wonder if the leader of Iran has a purple finger too?

Don

[acmavm]

2. I saw right here on DU last week that the Kurds were demanding the two

top positions in the Iraqi government, OR ELSE. They weren't going to take no for an answer either.

This is really going to turn into one hell of a mess.

[NNN0LHI]

3. I think most of the Kurds voted last Sunday here in America

So if they get any "ideas" the US should have a pretty good idea (purple fingers) how to find these folks and place them into "protective custody" when they realize that they (the Kurds) have yet again been screwed by another Bush.

First they came for the Kurds...

Don

[Kagemusha]

8. They asked for ONE of the two.

Which means President is OK.

[leftchick]

9. "one hell of a mess" all right!

as was predicted by all of us in the run-up to the invasion!

[PROUDNWLIBERAL]

4. Democracy

Ah the smell of Democracy, or is that a Bush foreign policy going up in flames.

[Skink]

5. Are we sure that wasn't red ink on their fingers...

:freak:

[mediaman007]

6. I think that Bush* was too quick to pat himself on the back...

Time has a way of revealing everything (except the Kennedy death coalition).

[theHandpuppet]

7. But haven't we shown them by our own example...

... that in a "democracy", he who gets the most votes doesn't necessarily win?

[D-Notice]

10. Why is it that

sometimes they're called "Shi'ite" and other times called "Shia"?

[ProgressiveConn]

11. Arabic Script into Latin alphabet... Just different transliterations. nt