Obama Tries To Hand Pick Iraqi Leader--What About The Iraqi Voter Don't They Matter?

Obama bid to pick Iraq leader spurned

Talabani rebuffs request to resign
al-Hakim in Baghdad.

By Eli Lake
The Washington Times
November 11, 2010

The U.S. wanted ex-Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to take the presidency.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, one of America's closest allies in the country, has rebuffed the personal request of President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to relinquish his post as Iraqis form a new government in Baghdad.

Iraqi leaders announced Thursday a new government in which Mr. Talabani remains president, Nouri al-Maliki remains prime minister and Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya party, which won the most votes in March's election, controls the speakership of Parliament and the presidency of the National Security Council.

Mr. al-Maliki and his top rival Mr. Allawi sat next to each other in the parliament chamber in an apparent sign of unity after a contentious, eight-month political fight over the formation of the government, the Associated Press reported. But that didn't last long, as he later joined a walkout of the Iraqiya members in protest.

A parliament vote on the government could still take weeks, but the session Thursday paved the way with the first formal steps, starting with the naming of a parliament speaker -- Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab, AP reported.

Mr. Allawi is a Shi'ia Arab, though his party has attracted support from former Baathists and Sunni Arabs.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani rejected a request by President Obama to give up his post in the new government. (Associated Press)The lawmakers had demanded that before parliament vote on the president, it vote first to formally dissolve decisions by a De-Baathification program purging former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling party which had barred three of their members from taking part in government positions, the AP reported. That demand was rejected, and the Iraqiya members left. The parliament session was able to continue without them.

Last Saturday, Mr. Obama phoned Mr. Talabani and asked him to give up the seat he has held since 2005 so that Mr. Allawi could be Iraq's president, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials familiar with the diplomacy. Mr. Obama on Saturday also urged the president of the Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, to accept Mr. Allawi in the role of the presidency.

Since late summer, U.S. officials had been trying to get Mr. al-Maliki and Mr. Allawi to share power in the government because neither man's party won the majority of votes. But Mr. al-Maliki's Rule of Law party ultimately formed an alliance with the Kurds and another Shiite bloc with ties to Iran known as the Iraqi National Alliance.

Qubad Talabani, Mr. Talabani's son and the Washington representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said the Kurds were disappointed with the United States.

"As the deadlock continues, Iyad Allawi has said the only post he wants is prime minister or president. The Americans have come to us and have asked us to step aside and relinquish the post of president to Iraqiya and specifically to Iyad Allawi, which we find very disappointing," he said.

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