Word: jaafari
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...leadership in Baghdad changed yet again this year. Negroponte left Baghdad in March to become director of national intelligence. He was replaced by Zalmay Khalilzad. But the turnover in the Iraqi government was far more important: religious Shi'ites, led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, took charge, a severe irritant to many Sunnis. "The insurgents see al-Jaafari as a traitor, a man who spent the Iran-Iraq war in Iran," says a senior military officer. "And many of the best officers we have trained in the new Iraqi army--Sunnis and secular Shi'ites who served in Saddam...
...dominated government, which had failed to anticipate the number of pilgrims before the stampede, and made a hash of relief efforts afterward. Especially angry were Baghdad's Shi'ites; in Sadr City, mass funerals quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations. Dismissing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's announcement of a three-day mourning period for the victims as mere eyewash, many called for his resignation and for that of his ministers for defense and the interior...
...Jaafari and his ministers are safe in office for the moment. But the rage generated by the stampede could hurt the government on Oct. 15, when Iraqis hold a referendum on the highly contentious new constitution. The dominant Shi'ite parties may find it a hard sell to a populace angered by official ineptitude and callousness...
...state friendly to Iran. In parts of southern Iraq, fundamentalist Shi'ite militias--some of them funded and armed by Iran--have imposed restrictions on the daily lives of Iraqis, banning alcohol and curbing the rights of women. Iraq's Shi'ite leaders, including Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, have tried to forge a strategic alliance with Tehran, even seeking to have Iranians recognized as a minority group under Iraq's proposed constitution. "We have to think anything we tell or share with the Iraqi government ends up in Tehran," says a Western diplomat...
...will surely complicate things and possibly split the Sistani-backed United Iraqi Alliance. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's Dawa party, SCIRI's alliance partner, has opposed creating a Shi'ite region in the south. There is suspicion that Iran is behind Hakim's call because of fears that Iraq, under the new constitution, will have a weaker central government than it has now, meaning any Iranian influence via Baghdad will be curtailed as well. The proposal alarms the Americans, who never anticipated the emergence of an Iranian-influenced southern region. Iranian influence is widely perceived as one of the greatest...