Ibrahim al-Jaafari
Ibrahim al-Jaafari is Prime Minister of Iraq.
On March 28, 2006, according to "Senior Shiite politicians," Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, "told Shiite officials to inform" al-Jaafari that President George W. Bush "does not want him to remain the country's leader in the next government."
"Ambassador Khalilzad said that President Bush 'doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept' Mr. Jaafari to be the next prime minister ... It was the first 'clear and direct message' from the Americans on the issue of the candidate for prime minister," the New York Times reported.
Profiles
Al-Jaafari, who served as a member of the Iraqi Governing Council beginning in July 2003, was on the Unified Iraqi Coalition List with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and "various other pro-Iran fundamentalists, in addition to Sadrists" for the December 15, 2005, Iraqi national elections. [1][2]
Al-Jaafari, a member of the Daawa Islamic Party (Shia), is "the spokesman for Daawa, one the oldest of the Shia Islamist movements." [3] In 1980, the party was banned and he fled to Iran, then to Syria and finally to Britain. Educated as a physician, al-Jaafari worked as a doctor in his hometown of Karbala.
Related SourceWatch Resources
External links
- "Summary: Top 5 Iraqi Cabinet ministers," Associated Press (Boston Globe), April 28, 2005.
- Edward Wong, "Shiites Say U.S. Is Pressuring Iraqi Leader to Step Aside," New York Times, March 28, 2006.
- Patrick Cockburn, "Bush's Call for Ouster of Iraq's Prime Minister Widens Rift with Shias," CounterPunch, March 29, 2006.
- Patrick Cockburn, "Democracy in Iraq - US has the golden ballot," Global Echo, March 29, 2006: "Mr Bush has written to the Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shi'ite Alliance asking him to nominate somebody else for the post of Prime Minister."
- Ehsan Ahrari, "A silver bullet aimed at Iraq's head," Asia Times, April 4, 2006.
- Robert H. Reid, "Report: Iraq PM Rejects Call to Step Aside," Associated Press (ABC News), April 5, 2006.
