Word: blocs
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...Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced Thursday that he would refer his nomination for a second term back to the United Iraqi Alliance, the dominant Shi'ite bloc in the new legislature. That opens the way for the Alliance to select a new candidate and break the deadlock created by the refusal of the Kurdish, Sunni and secular blocs, backed by the U.S., to accept a second Jaafari term...
...have hardened Jaafari's resolve to remain in power. The decisive intervention may have been the reported signal from, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's leading Shi'ite spiritual authority. Sistani had refrained from intervening on the question of the nominee, although he had insisted that the Shi'ite bloc remain united at all costs. But a meeting Wednesday by UN representative Ashraf Qazi with the cleric, who refuses to talk to U.S. officials, may have prompted him to act out of concern over growing sectarian violence...
...refused to back their territorial claim on the mixed oil-rich city of Kirkuk. But these positions were not personal whims of Jaafari's so much as a reflection of the demands of his base in the majority Shi'ite community. And by nixing Jaafari, the dominant Shi'ite bloc will simply get to nominate another candidate under pressure from his political base...
...Britain hope that the man chosen will be current deputy president Adel Abdul-Mahdi of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), who was edged out by a single vote in the Shi'ite bloc's internal ballot that nominated Jaafari. But if Jaafari's backers don't get to have their man, there are reasons to expect that Abdul-Mahdi's won't gets theirs, either...
...Western "meddling" in Iraq's politics, which may make the recent feting of Abdul Mahdi by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during their Baghdad visit something of a kiss of death. More importantly, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, to whom the Shi'ite bloc turned for guidance on resolving the standoff, has insisted that it resolve the issue both speedily and unanimously. That demand will likely translate into a compromise candidate, and Abdul-Mahdi doesn't necessarily fit that bill: not only has he come out publicly against Jaafari, but Jaafari's principal backer...