Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BAGHDAD1689
2006-05-22 15:17:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

CABINET FORMATION ATMOSPHERICS

Tags:  PGOV KDEM PNAT PTER IZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2923
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHGB #1689/01 1421517
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 221517Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4593
INFO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001689 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PNAT PTER IZ
SUBJECT: CABINET FORMATION ATMOSPHERICS

Classified By: Political Counselor Robert S. Ford for
Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001689

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PNAT PTER IZ
SUBJECT: CABINET FORMATION ATMOSPHERICS

Classified By: Political Counselor Robert S. Ford for
Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Atmospherics at the May 20 inauguration of
the new Iraqi Cabinet, reflected a blend of mirth,
frustrated ambition, chaos -- but also satisfaction that a
hurdle had been passed. Kurdish attendees joked over
Speaker Mashadani's occasional malaproprisms and the fluid
denouement to the government formation negotiations. Prior
to commencement of the session, in which he would rise in
protest, Hewar leader Saleh Mutlak told PolOff that he had
in fact agreed to participate in the government. Up to the
moment of cabinet announcement, some Iraqiyya members
seemed under the mistaken impression that they would be
ministerial nominees. The new Industry Minister (Kurdish
Alliance) told PolOff that he did not know which ministry
he would head until the ceremony began. According to the
new Minister of Human Rights (Iraqiyya),the May 21 Cabinet
meeting suggests that the discussion was mostly about
administrative matters. The confusion stemmed largely from
the closed-door, secretive negotiations about names. Iraqi
politics in this sense are not so different from other
developing democracies (including, at one time, ours) that
are not very transparent. This could change over time -
many of those mulling around waiting for the final cabinet
announcements privately acknowledged the system should be
more open. The Iraqi political deal making was also marked
by the Iraqi predilection to putting off hard decisions
until the last possible moment - or even a little later.
End Summary.

--------------
KURDISH STAFFER AMUSED
--------------


2. (C) The May 20 Council of Representatives vote on the
cabinet was set to begin at 1100 but in fact was delayed
until nearly 1330 as last-minute wrangling over names
continued. In the meantime, most parliamentarians and a
few political aspirants like Ahmed Chalabi wandered through
the Convention Center trading stories, gossip and
cigarettes. By 1300 President Talabani declined to
negotiate any further with Tawafuq dissident Khalaf Alayan,

noting Alayan deserved no further favors. Instead, he
decided to sit down with a table of Kurdish Alliance and
Iraqiyya members to reminisce about his youth. He chided
his chief of staff, Kamran Karadaghi for failing to make an
appointment for one of the Council of Representatives
members at the table, saying "of all the people in the
world, he should get an appointment whenever he wants!" He
told an enthralled audience - including Ayad Allawi's aunt
Aida Ussayran and Nasir Chaderchi's son Kamal - how he was
once broke and alone in China, with two suitcases and no
money. The Council of Representatives member, who was in
China as well at the time, took him to lunch and loaned him
money. Later, Karadaghi told PolOff wryly that Talabani
had ordered him last week to postpone the meeting.


3. (C) PolOff heard Karadaghi and Presidency Council Media
Advisor Hiwa Othman joking throughout the whole May 20
program. When Sunni Arabs loudly protested the lack of a
complete government and the allocation of ministries,
Karadaghi leaned over and mocked, "You call this
leadership?" Later, when Speaker Mashadani called out the
names of new ministerial nominees, the Kurds started
laughing because he accidentally called for the Minister of
"Maliya" (Financial) Resources, rather than "Ma'iya"
(Water) Resources. "It can be both," Karadaghi assured
PolOff. Later, Ja'afari gave a moving speech calling for
all sides to renounce their sectarian prejudices and
sternly reminded the COR that, "None of us are here today
by coincidence!" Karadaghi, not a fan of the Shia
Islamists, again leaned over to whisper, "Actually, I think
three-quarters of the members wandered here by accident."
Newly-appointed Ministry of Industry and Minerals Fawzi
Hariri, who had said wearily before the ceremony that he
still did not know for which Ministry he was being
nominated, caught PolOff's eye from the podium after he was
called up to take a seat with other ministers and mouthed,
"Can you believe this?".


--------------
Mutlak - a Day Late
--------------

4. (C) Hewar's Saleh Mutlak told Poloff immediately before
the Assembly session that he had accepted PM Maliki's
proposal for his inclusion in government. He denied
reports that Hewar was excluded from the government after
he refused to sign a written pledge to support the
government program. "After all, I was in the group that

BAGHDAD 00001689 002 OF 003


developed the program," he said. He said he was asked to
sign a statement that he would change his public
pronouncements - which he refused to do. Mutlak said that
PM Maliki had called him May 20 morning and asked if Mutlak
wanted to be in the government on terms agreed to and
Mutlak agreed. (Note: The reported agreement would have
given Mutlak the Ministry of State of National Dialogue and
the Ministries of Environment and Women's Affairs. End
note.) Mutlak later learned during the morning of May 20
that he had been excluded from the cabinet deal. During
the CoR seQon Mutlak Q attemptedQ make an appeal to
the parliamentarians to vote their conscience and not their
party but pointedly did not threaten to go into opposition.
He left the CoR with Tawafuq's National Dialogue only after
the cabinet names were read out. Mutlak later told the
media that he refused to be part of the government because
he was asked to renounce his principles which he would
never do. (Comment: In the end, Mutlak, who played hard
to get to the very end, made it easy for Maliki and the IIP
leadership to exclude him and divide up the spoils. End
comment.)

-------------- --------------
Uncertainty Within Iraqiyya
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Iraqiyya insider Saad Janabi called Poloff on the
morning of May 20 and said that Iraqiyya sent a letter to
PM Maliki with a new slate of candidates for ministerial
posts listing him as their number one choice for the
Ministry of Communication. Iraqiyya CoR member Safia
Suhail told Poloff later that morning that the Iraqiyya
letter also demanded that an Assistant Prime Minister
position for Safia be created with the same powers as those
afforded DPM Barham Salah or she would not accept the
position. The letter was reportedly the subject of a last
minute negotiating meeting with PM Maliki that delayed the
11 A.M. planned start of the CoR session. (Comment: The
letter may have been a ploy by Ayad Allawi to placate
inconvenient demands from Saad and Safia. E.g., Saad was
one of the Iraqiyya CoR candidates barred from running by
the De-Ba'thification Committee, which might also have
precluded him from holding a ministerial position. Knowing
that the demands would be rejected, Allawi could claim that
he had tried. End comment.)


6. (C) After the cabinet names were read and Suhail saw
that she was not named as an Assistant Prime Minister she
began to loudly protest the lack of women in cabinet
leadership roles and demand a vote count for each minister.
Though ignored by Speaker Mashadani, she repeatedly
demanded a vote count and when FM minister Zebari's name
was read, asked to be able to pose questions about the
nomination. She later told Poloff that she was happy that
she embarrassed FM Zebari on international TV - "I got my
revenge" she added. (Note: Safia Suhail has publicQand
pQtely aQcked FM Zebari on two issues. First that he
withdrew her nomination to be Iraq's Ambassador to Egypt in
2005 after she received agrement. Moreover, she is angry
that Zebari kept on in the Foreign Ministry and promoted a
Ba'thist official who she thinks was implicated in the
murder of her father in Lebanon in 1994. End note.)

--------------
A SURPRISED NOMINEE
--------------


7. (C) New Minister of Human Rights Wijdan Mikhail Salim
told PolOff May 20 that she was unaware that she had been
chosen to be the new minister. She received a call
notifying her right after the Council of Representatives
meeting started. Surprised, she rushed over to the session
arriving almost an hour late; she slipped into the back row
of ministers on the podium.


8. (C) Deputy Minister of Human Rights and Council of
Representative member Aida Ossairan told PolOff in a
subsequent May 20 phone conversation that she had assumed
that she was being nominated as the Minister of Human
Rights. Ossairan, a relative of Ayad Allawi's, said that
she was told the night of May 19 that she would be the
Human Rights Minister. Ossairan complained that she only
found out during Maliki's announcement on the podium that
it was not to be. "Even President Talibani congratulated
me today before the session" she said.

--------------
FIRST CABINET MEETING
--------------


9. (C). In a phone conversation May 21 with PolOff,

BAGHDAD 00001689 003 OF 003


Minister of Human Rights Wijdan Salim said that the Council
of Ministers meeting was uneventful and focused on
introductions and general house business items. Salim said
that during the ninety minute meeting, introductions were
made of both former and new Ministers followed by general
remarks from Jaafari and Maliki which included a message
that the new Ministers should "work for Iraq" and not for
their respective parties. The rest of the meeting
according to Salim was focused on IZ badge issues, housing
and other logistical matters. According to Salim, several
new ministers were no shows, including the new ministers
for Women's Affairs and Housing and Construction.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


10. (C). It should not be a surprise that Iraqi political
figures finalize their deals in closed meetings while aides
and allies mull around waiting for decisions. Many
developing democracies, including our own, have operated in
such a fashion. Over time, the system here could evolve
into one which is more transparent; many political figures
already are demanding this. Many also argue that it would
be better here if the political bloc leaders had a smaller
role choosing ministers and the prime minister had a bigger
role. The Iraqi process in 2006, as it was in 2005, was
also notable for the Iraqi political leaders' preference to
postpone final decisions until the last possible moment,
and then perhaps even a little after that.
KHALILZAD