The shy family doctor who emerged on Tuesday as the most likely candidate to become Iraq's first democratically-elected prime minister says he would make ending the nation's rampant violence his top priority and US troops would remain as long as they were needed to achieve that goal.
In an exclusive Associated Press interview, the moderate Shiite politician, who fled a brutal crackdown by Saddam Hussein in 1980, talked about drafting a constitution that will draw not only on Islam for inspiration.
"Islam should be the official religion of the country, and one of the main sources for legislation, along with other sources that do not harm Muslim sensibilities," he said.
Al-Jaafari, who lived in London and is the leader of the Dawa Party, emerged as the top contender for the prime minister's job on Tuesday after his main rival, Adel Abdul Mahdi, dropped out. Ahmad Chalabi, a former Pentagon favorite, was still in the running, but was considered by many to be a long shot.
In Sunday's results, the United Iraqi Alliance scooped 48 percent of the vote for the National Assembly, the Kurdish alliance took 26 percent and Allawi, a secular Shiite, won only 14 percent. That could make the Kurds the king makers in the new Iraq.
The provisional results have yet to be certified by the election commission pending challenges. Once the results are certified, the present government must set a timetable for installing the new government, a process that could take weeks.
Al-Jaafari, 58, acknowledged that recent deals reached between Iraq's religious parties pointed toward his victory.
"I hear from here and there, but I can't tell to what extent it is a consensus," he said, wearing a blue suit and a neatly trimmed gray beard.
Al-Jaafari said that if he is confirmed as prime minister, he would first try to stymie the violence that has crippled the nation's recovery from decades of war and hardship.
"The security situation is at the top, as it is a pressing element," al-Jaafari said. He also said he would not push for the US and its allies to withdraw their troops from Iraq any time soon.
"Blood is being spilled and the land is under attack," he said. "How about if we decided to get these troops out of Iraq?" he said, suggesting that the situation would be much worse than it is now.
But al-Jaafar has kept some distance from the US occupation.
He boycotted a US-organized meeting of Iraqi politicians near the biblical city of Ur in April 2003. While he served on the Governing Council appointed by the US government shortly after the invasion, he turned down the Americans' offer of protection. But he did serve on the council and became vice president of the interim government that replaced it.
Speaking from his home in the US guarded Green Zone in central Baghdad, he said he shares the Kurdish and Shiite desire for federalism in Iraq.
"I am looking for a constitution that would be a clear mirror of the composition of the Iraq people," he said. It should be "based on respecting all Iraqi beliefs and freedoms."
But he was clear that he opposed any attempts to break Iraq apart, following a non-binding referendum in the Kurdistan region promoting independence.
"Federalism doesn't mean separation from the nation state," he said.
Even though he leads the Dawa Party, which is part of the clergy-endorsed United Iraqi Alliance, his views contrasted with the official platform on the party's Web site.
The party urges for the "Islamization" of the Iraqi society and the state, including the implementation of Sharia, or Islamic law.
He dismissed the apparent contradiction, saying only, "theory is different from practice."
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS