The new cabinet should serve as "an instrument for the transfer of power to an elected authority," Kharazi

BEIRUT, September 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The naming of 25 ministers for an interim government in Iraq drew mixed reactions in the Arab world Tuesday, September 2, as overall authority will still remain in the hands of U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer.

In Lebanon, most newspapers warned that Iraq's "headless" new Iraqi cabinet, divided along sectarian lines and under the direct control of the U.S.-led occupation forces, is a time bomb ready to explode.

"First Iraqi government born headless," read the front-page headline of the Al-Bayraq newspaper.

"Iraqi Government Run by American Advisors," read the bold banner of As-Safir, which noted that "U.S. forces were quick to welcome the ... cabinet ... and to assert at the same time that they will appoint American advisors to each one of them to 'help' them in running their ministries."

Al-Kifah al-Arabi published a back-page cartoon showing the distribution of ministries along sectarian lines as a time bomb ready to explode, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"Iraqi government without a Prime Minister and the last word is for the American ruler," read its headline.

On Monday, the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council selected a 25-member cabinet, and each minister was given a shadow advisor from the U.S.-led administration running Iraq.

Asharq daily warned that "the strange make-up of the government carries all the components of self implosion."

"For the first time in Iraq's history, the confessions and sects behave as independent entities ... as if they want to be bigger than Iraq itself as an entity and a country," the paper said in a front-page editorial.

"As if Iraq has turned into a piece of cheese over which are fighting community leaders, eager to show their subordination to the United States of America to the point of an intended stealing of their will," it said.

The leading An-Nahar's editorial said the formation of the government was a "non-event," as the body turned out to be a "clone" of the Governing Council.

But the paper said the formation of a new cabinet could help in efforts to "convince Arab states to recognize the first Iraqi authority after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime on April 9."

Arab countries have not officially recognized the governing council, amid fears the recognition could appear to be giving it a status of a full-fledged government and undermine their efforts to pressure the U.S. and British forces into ending their occupation now in its fifth month and turn over power into the hands of Iraqis.

Welcomed

On the other hand, a number of Arab countries hailed the formation of the cabinet as a move leading to the election of a national representative government.

"This is a positive step and we hope it will lead to real elections empowering the Iraqi people to elect a representative government," Jordanian Information Minister Nabil Sharif was quoted by Al-Dustour daily as saying.

Iraq's US-backed Governing Council announced Monday the names of 24 men and one woman who will act as ministers in an interim government until elections are held next year.

The new interim government will have no defense, information or religious affairs ministries, nor will there be a prime minister. Instead the Governing Council's rotating chairman will assume that post.

Council member Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, a pro-Western anti-Saddam Hussein faction that provided troops for the U.S.-led invasion, on Monday took over the rotating chairmanship of the body.

Jordan has sentenced Chalabi in absentia to 22 years in jail for fraud and embezzling 288 million dollars. He has always maintained that his conviction was the result of a plot by Saddam's regime to frame him.

‘Fruitful Cooperation’

Kuwait also welcomed the formation of an interim government in Iraq, saying it hoped to boost ties with the new cabinet to overcome the bitter legacy of Saddam Hussein's invasion of the emirate.

"Kuwait looks forward to fruitful and constructive cooperation with the new Iraqi government with a view to forging brotherly ties with (Iraq)," said Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, quoted by the KUNA news agency.

Such ties based on mutual respect and upholding international law and conventions would lead to "overcoming the negative effects which the ousted regime caused to relations between the two sisterly countries," he said.

Instrument

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said the that the cabinet should prepare the way for an elected government in Iraq.

Iran believed Iraq should have "a democratic government elected by the Iraqi people," Kharazi said, adding that the new cabinet should serve as "an instrument for the transfer of power to an elected authority," Kharazi told reporters during a visit to Kuwait Monday.