American pressures to appoint al-Baja Je a President for Iraq
Iraq-USA, Politics, 6/1/2004

Member of the Iraqi Interim governing council Mahmoud Othman announced that Sheikh Ghazi Ijeil Elawer is the most likely to win the post of the Iraqi republic Presidency in order to run the affairs of the country after the authority will be handed over to the Iraqis on June 30.

Othman admitted that Washington and the UN are making pressures to choose Adnan al-Baja Je, expressing his conviction that the matter will be settled by the ultimate end to serve the interests of Sheikh Elawer.

However, members of the governing council and the UN envoy Elakhder al-Ibraheimi as well as the American administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer continue their talks in Baghdad to settle this issue. Both al-Ibraheimi and Bremer seek to convince members of the governing council not to vote for the post of the President and to confine their voiced support to al-Baja Je by applause.

The continued meetings also aim at drawing the final touches on the Interim government which will be handed over the authority after the council on Friday chose Eyad Allawi to acquire the post of the prime minister in Iraq, But the UN has not yet ratified his appointment.

As for the post of the Vice President, there will be two vice presidents, one of them is Kurdish. A likely candidate to this post is Rosh Nouri Shawis of the Kurdistani democratic party which is led by Masoud al-Barazani and the second is a Shiite and is expected to be the chairman of the Islamic Dawa ( call) party Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

A source as the governing council said that member of the higher council of the Islamic revolution Adel Abdul Mahdi is a candidate for the post of the finance minister or the post of the vice President.

Among the 26 ministers of the Interim government, the Kurds will get 6 seats, two of them are for the Kurdistani democratic party led by Masoud al-Barazani and two for the Kurdistani national federation party which is led by Jalal al-Talibani and other two independents.

News reports said that the current Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari is a candidate to occupy the post of the defense minister and to be replaced by Barham Saleh. The former executive director of the oil ministry and its deputy Thamer Ghadban is a candidate for the post of the minister of oil instead of Ibrahim baher al-Oloum, son of member of the governing council Muhammad Baher al-Oloum.

Previous Stories:
  Powell says U.S. awaits brahimi decision on Iraq leaders   (5/29/2004)
  An attempt to assassinate al-Khafaji; Washington refuses date for ending UN authorization; al-Najaf agreement ends confrontation   (5/28/2004)
  Bush lays out plan for Iraqi sovereignty   (5/25/2004)

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