Breaking News: Jaafari presents Cabinet to Talabani

The Scotsman reports that prospective Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has presented his cabinet to President Jalal Talabani. Jaafari, a religious Shiite from the Dawa Party, gave 17 cabinet posts to Shiites, including the sensitive one of Interior (which includes domestic intelligence). Sunni Arabs will get the Ministry of Defense and a vice-premiership, as well as at least 3 other cabinet posts. Ex-Baathists among the Sunni Arabs have been excluded.

The president and his two vice presidents (these are Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, Sunni Arab Ghazi al-Yawir, and Shiite member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Adil Abdul Mahdi) will now approve the cabinet. If they give the go-ahead, Jaafari will submit it for a vote in parliament. He needs a 2/3s majority or about 182 votes in the 275-member parliament. The Shiite list has about 145 and the Kurds have 77, so they alone can approve the government if they like. (update: A reader just alleged to me that the new government requires only a simple majority in parliament. If so, and if the presidency council does not balk, Jaafari is assured of getting his government through...)

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Nice to know there's at least ONE person out there being what feels like and appears to be objective, methodical, and non-hysterical.

Thank you Professor Cole.