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February 15, 2005

Shi'ites back Jaafari for PM

Topics: Middle East News and Perspectives

It looks like Vice-President Ibrahim Jaafari is the new Prime Minister of Iraq. In August 2003 he became the first chairman of the US-appointed and now-defunct Governing Council, but has since remained largely on the sidelines of the public debate. But an opinion poll published last year ranked the 54-year-old as the third-most influential public figure in Iraq, behind Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr. He is one of only a few Shia politicians who commands wide respect among Sunni Muslims and goes out of his way to allay fears that the Shias, who suffered from decades of Sunni repression, would seek to force their will on the country's other ethnic and religious communities once in power.

- The Australian
THE Shi'ite coalition that won Iraq's elections has agreed on Vice-President Ibrahim Jaafari as its candidate for the prime ministership, as parties haggled over the makeup of the next executive.

(...)  Jaafari, who is poised to succeed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, is a popular politician who heads the country's oldest Shi'ite party, Dawa.

(...)  He will become Iraq's first elected prime minister following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in April 2003.

Posted by Hyscience at February 15, 2005 11:16 PM

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