Elyawer rejects the presidency of the parliament

Sources close to the Iraqi president, Ghazi Elwayer, whose term of office has expired, said he had rejected accepting the post of the speaker of the interim National Assembly.

This came while Iraqi sources expected that the second session for the Iraqi National Assembly (parliament) due to be held today, Tuesday, to choose a speaker for the parliament and his two deputies.

One parliamentarian from the United Iraqi Coalition said that Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba was nominated to assume the post of the speaker of the National Assembly and Hussein al-Shahrastani as his deputy, and the Kurds to choose their candidates to assume the post of the second deputy for the parliament's speaker.

He explained that the Kurds prefer Hajem al-Hussini, the minister of industry, whose post of office expired, to assume the post of the speaker of the parliament instead of Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba because he is a Sunni Kurd.

Member of the Iraqi United Coalition, Fawaz al-Jarba, said on Sunday that the American officials expressed reservations over the name of certain candidates for assuming posts in the ministries of defense and the interior because they have contacts or affected by neighboring states like Iran and Syria. However, a spokesman for the American embassy in Baghdad denied that his country had interfered in the negotiations concerning the candidates or that American officials expressed their views in any of the candidates.