Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
March 15, 2009
Pg. 8
By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD — President Jalal Talabani’s office confirmed Saturday that he would not seek a second term, setting off speculation over a battle for his successor and whether the Kurds would retain the post of president, one of the three top jobs in the Iraqi government.
Mr. Talabani, 76, said he would leave office at the end of his current term in an interview broadcast Friday by Press TV, an Iranian television network, while he was visiting Tehran.
His office released a statement on Saturday night saying that he would “relinquish a second term” but continue to be active in the Kurdish political party he leads.
His term will end when a new president is chosen by the Iraqi Parliament, probably in spring 2010, after the next round of national elections.
The presidency is considered the second-highest-ranking position in government, after the prime minister, and Mr. Talabani, a Kurd, has used it to be a broker between ethnic and religious blocs within the government.
When he steps down there is all but certain to be sharp competition between Sunni Arabs and Kurds for the post. The post of prime minister is held by a Shiite, and it is likely to remain so. Shiites are a majority in Iraq.
Both Sunnis and Kurds have laid claim to the presidency.
“Either it will go to an Arab Sunni, or if it stays in the hands of the Kurds, the two Kurdish parties will have to decide between them who will get it,” said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of Parliament who is not allied with either of the two main Kurdish parties.
Although the news was not unexpected — Mr. Talabani has a heart ailment and has often spoken casually of retiring — his party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, is in disarray, and it is deeply divided about who should be his successor.
The statement indicated that he would remain active in trying to help his party through this turbulent period. “He is willing to relinquish a second term and to devote himself to his general political and party duties,” the statement said.
In the television interview, he said that at the end of his term, “I hope to retire, to go back home and to have time for writing my memoirs.”
The presidency has limited powers, a conscious decision by the framers of the new Iraqi Constitution to ensure that no one again accrued the kind of power exercised by Saddam Hussein. The main power of the Presidency Council, which also includes two vice presidents, a Shiite and a Sunni, is to approve or veto legislation passed by Parliament.
Mr. Talabani has used the position to try to resolve disputes between various factions within the government and to reach out to foreign leaders, including some who have not been on good terms with Iraq in the past.
He is a regular visitor to Tehran, although there remains widespread antagonism in Iraq toward Iran because of the legacy of the Iran-Iraq war. He has reached out to Turkey, which has had a fraught relationship with Iraqi Kurdistan because the region has allowed Kurdish rebels who are fighting Turkey to live in the mountains of northern Iraq.
“President Talabani really is a unique person who has a sort of national attitude rather than a Kurdish attitude,” said Qassim Daoud, an independent Shiite member of Parliament who worked with him when both men were members of the exiled opposition to Mr. Hussein in the years before the American invasion. “All sides work with him because everyone feels he is working for Iraq.”
Also on Saturday, insurgents fired rockets at the Green Zone in Baghdad and at an oil refinery. No casualties were reported.
In Salahuddin Province, gunmen killed six men who recently had been released by the Americans from the Camp Bucca detention center in southern Iraq.
Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kurdistan and Salahuddin Province.
March 15, 2009
Pg. 8
By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD — President Jalal Talabani’s office confirmed Saturday that he would not seek a second term, setting off speculation over a battle for his successor and whether the Kurds would retain the post of president, one of the three top jobs in the Iraqi government.
Mr. Talabani, 76, said he would leave office at the end of his current term in an interview broadcast Friday by Press TV, an Iranian television network, while he was visiting Tehran.
His office released a statement on Saturday night saying that he would “relinquish a second term” but continue to be active in the Kurdish political party he leads.
His term will end when a new president is chosen by the Iraqi Parliament, probably in spring 2010, after the next round of national elections.
The presidency is considered the second-highest-ranking position in government, after the prime minister, and Mr. Talabani, a Kurd, has used it to be a broker between ethnic and religious blocs within the government.
When he steps down there is all but certain to be sharp competition between Sunni Arabs and Kurds for the post. The post of prime minister is held by a Shiite, and it is likely to remain so. Shiites are a majority in Iraq.
Both Sunnis and Kurds have laid claim to the presidency.
“Either it will go to an Arab Sunni, or if it stays in the hands of the Kurds, the two Kurdish parties will have to decide between them who will get it,” said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of Parliament who is not allied with either of the two main Kurdish parties.
Although the news was not unexpected — Mr. Talabani has a heart ailment and has often spoken casually of retiring — his party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, is in disarray, and it is deeply divided about who should be his successor.
The statement indicated that he would remain active in trying to help his party through this turbulent period. “He is willing to relinquish a second term and to devote himself to his general political and party duties,” the statement said.
In the television interview, he said that at the end of his term, “I hope to retire, to go back home and to have time for writing my memoirs.”
The presidency has limited powers, a conscious decision by the framers of the new Iraqi Constitution to ensure that no one again accrued the kind of power exercised by Saddam Hussein. The main power of the Presidency Council, which also includes two vice presidents, a Shiite and a Sunni, is to approve or veto legislation passed by Parliament.
Mr. Talabani has used the position to try to resolve disputes between various factions within the government and to reach out to foreign leaders, including some who have not been on good terms with Iraq in the past.
He is a regular visitor to Tehran, although there remains widespread antagonism in Iraq toward Iran because of the legacy of the Iran-Iraq war. He has reached out to Turkey, which has had a fraught relationship with Iraqi Kurdistan because the region has allowed Kurdish rebels who are fighting Turkey to live in the mountains of northern Iraq.
“President Talabani really is a unique person who has a sort of national attitude rather than a Kurdish attitude,” said Qassim Daoud, an independent Shiite member of Parliament who worked with him when both men were members of the exiled opposition to Mr. Hussein in the years before the American invasion. “All sides work with him because everyone feels he is working for Iraq.”
Also on Saturday, insurgents fired rockets at the Green Zone in Baghdad and at an oil refinery. No casualties were reported.
In Salahuddin Province, gunmen killed six men who recently had been released by the Americans from the Camp Bucca detention center in southern Iraq.
Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kurdistan and Salahuddin Province.