Field narrows for top jobs in Iraq Cabinet
WASHINGTON -- The United Nations and United States envoys will launch a final push this week to form a new Iraqi government. Secret discussions at the United Nations last week were held to expedite filling four leadership jobs and 25 Cabinet posts, according to US officials.
Favorite candidates for the top four jobs have emerged, with particular focus on two emerging Shi'ite politicians for prime minister and veteran Sunni politician Adnan Pachachi as the possible president, US and coalition officials say.
With only two months left before the handover of power on June 30, the US-led coalition is cautiously optimistic that a new government can be named within 10 days.
''When [UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi] goes in, he's almost ready to start naming names. He's ready to start pulling things together. He's into the end game. He's created a structure," said a State Department official familiar with the Iraq talks. ''We could go from political anarchy to the end game in a few days."
US and UN officials also warn, however, that identifying new leaders and balancing disparate ethnic and religious communities -- plus coping with the anticipated backlash from excluded parties, including key members of the Iraqi Governing Council -- could eat up the entire month. Iraq's volatility could also complicate or defer consultations.
But much of the political legwork has quietly been done over the past two weeks in Baghdad and Washington as well as the United Nations.
Names of candidates for the four senior positions have already begun to circulate in Washington and New York, despite categorical denials from the United Nations and the Bush administration that final decisions have been made.
During talks in Baghdad last month, Brahimi asked several parties -- from a panel of Iraqi judges and the Governing Council to the US-led coalition ruling Iraq -- to come up with slates of candidates.
As prime minister, a favorite of the US-led coalition in Baghdad is Mahdi Hafez, the Shi'ite minister of planning who met Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other senior US and UN officials during a quiet visit to the United States last week.
Hafez, a former communist who became a moderate, is considered a capable technocrat who could lead a caretaker government until elections are held early next year, US and Iraqi officials said.
''People think he's honest and not corrupt, which is rare," said a senior US official who served in Iraq.
Added a Kurdish official, ''He's a solid compromise candidate. No one is likely to feel threatened by him."
But US officials are also concerned that US and British press reports naming Hafez last week, before Brahimi and National Security Council Iraq troubleshooter Robert Blackwill get to Baghdad, could taint or doom his potential candidacy.
The other politician cited by many is Ibrahim Jafari, the Shi'ite leader of the Islamic Dawa Party and one of 25 members on the council that is likely to be dissolved and replaced by the interim government.
