Profile: Iraqi PM designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari

Profile: Iraqi PM designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari ^ | Apr. 8, 2005

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Profile: Iraqi PM designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari

BAGHDAD, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's presidential council named on Thursday Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister for the transitional government.

The Iraqi Kurdish president Jalal Talabani read a presidential decree to reporters after the sworn-in ceremony, charging Jaafari to form the new Iraqi cabinet.

Jaafari is head of the Islamist Dawa Party, which is a major party forming the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which won a majority in Jan. 30 elections, along with the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) led by Abdel Aziz Hakim.

Jaafari, one of the two former vice presidents, became Iraq's first president of the country's Governing Council after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled by US-led coalition forces in April 2003.

He assumed power in August 2003 as the president of the then Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), a 25-member executive body installedby the now defunct US-led occupation authority.

Jaafari became the first IGC president for one simple reason: his name comes first in the Arabic alphabet among the nine members of the monthly rotating presidency.

His Dawa party, a Shiite Muslim religious party founded in 1958,has maintained popularity in the war-ravaged country and the region.

Educated at Mosul University as a medical doctor, Jaafari fled his homeland in 1980 when Saddam began to oppress his party.

While his family were still living in London, Britain, he returned to Iraq in the light of the US-led invasion and was chosento be a representative of the Shiite community in the IGC.

A humble-looking physician, the 58-year-old Jaafari favored a mixture of Islamic traditions and western democracy.

Jaafari told reporters at the news briefing that "our prioritieswould be fighting the administrative corruption and the security problem, where we will improve the performance of the security forces in quality and quantity."

He reached out to those who boycotted the election, calling them "Iraqis and we will be open for them with love and confidence."

Asked about the timetable for the multinational forces to withdraw from Iraq, Jaafari said, "We will set a timetable for building Iraqi security forces and this would be the timetable for the foreign forces to withdraw from Iraq."

The United Iraqi Alliance, with which Jaafari affiliated, won over 50 percent of the vote, enabling it to garner about 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly.

Jaafari said he hopes to form the cabinet within two weeks although he has one month period according to the basic law.

Expected to replace outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Jaafariwill face a tough transitional period full of social unrest. Enditem

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"Al-Jaafari spent more than two decades in exile, mostly in Britain and Iran, helping to lead anti-Saddam opposition forces in the Islamic Dawa Party, Iraq's first Shiite Islamic political party. He also has close ties to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric. Al-Jaafari's wife is a distant relative of al-Sistani's."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=648709

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This is the interim gov't.

[FreeReign]

Asked about the timetable for the multinational forces to withdraw from Iraq, Jaafari said, "We will set a timetable for building Iraqi security forces and this would be the timetable for the foreign forces to withdraw from Iraq."

Great response.

[Valin]

I thought we were imposing Democracy since we are paying this heavy price

We're not "imposing" democracy on the Iraqis, we're giving them a shot at it. At the end of the day it's up to them as to how this will work.

but then I read this guy was just picked by the other guy.What is going on here?

I believe it's called politics. Good old fashioned smoky backroom horsetrading poliycs



Oh welcome aboard.