Juan Cole - April 25, 2005 Part 2

Jaafari Decides to Exclude Allawi

Al-Zaman/ Reuters reports that prospective Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has decided to give up attempting to form a government of national unity that would include the Iraqiya list of outgoing PM Iyad Allawi, which consists in significant part of secularist ex-Baathists. It has been reported that Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani had pressed vehemently for Allawi's inclusion in the new government. In the end, however, it appears to be the case that an essential difference of opinion has made it impossible. Jaafari and his Dawa Party are determined to purge ex-Baathists from the Interior Ministry, something Allawi was attempting to halt.