Kurds Reject Al-Ja'fari As Iraq Prime Minister

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'fari (file photo) (epa) April 9, 2006 -- Kurdish political leaders in Iraq  today expressed their final rejection of Ibrahim al-Ja'fari, the serving prime minister, as leader of a new coalition government.

Kurdish negotiator Mahmud Othman said the Kurdish grouping in parliament had made known its views at a meeting on April 9 with representatives of al-Ja'fari's party.

The main Shi'ite alliance, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), has nominated al-Ja'fari to the post, but Kurdish and Sunni figures accuse him of failing to stop the wave of sectarian violence in Iraq.

The UIA on April 9 formed a committee to decide the fate of al-Ja'fari and end a standoff that has left a power vacuum nearly four months after the elections.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, on April 9 urged the world to be patient, saying the Iraqi people must not get just any government, but a good government.

(Reuter, AFP)