Discord greets Iraq’s ‘unity government;’ Kurds boycott

[bemildred]

By Roy Gutman
McClatchy Foreign Staff

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government whose advent Obama administration officials hailed Monday as “a major milestone” in the country’s push to confront the Islamic State looked less attractive on Tuesday: The cabinet consists mainly of holdovers from previous governments, there’s deep discord over who will head the key security ministries, and the Kurds for now are refusing to take up their posts.

Some parliamentarians blamed the ragged edges on the Obama administration, which pushed hard for the removal of Nouri al Maliki as prime minister and welcomed his replacement, Haider al Abadi, after he was voted in Monday.

A senior U.S. official, identified in published reports as Brett McGurk, deputy assistant secretary of state, even invited himself and a senior United Nations official to a meeting of Kurdish political leaders in Suleymaniya in the Kurdish region where the Kurds were deciding whether to join the new government, said Fuad Hussein, chief of staff for Kurdish President Masoud Barzani. McGurk stressed the importance of the Kurds’ participation, the official said.

But before Kurdish politicians could decide, Parliament voted for Abadi’s sketchily outlined government program and for most of his ministers. Kurdish members spent most of the evening in the cafeteria, saying they had no instructions from the parties that sent them to Parliament. Then they announced they would take part in the government for three months, during which their leaders hope to negotiate on issues critical to Kurds.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/09/09/4338831/discord-greets-iraqs-unity-government.html

[GeorgeGist]

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