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Journalism of Courage
Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has indicated he will not yield to calls to step aside to let someone else to form the next government.
“There is a decision that was reached by a democratic mechanism and I stand with it,” al-Jaafari was quoted as saying in Wednesday’s editions of The Guardian. “We have to protect democracy in Iraq, and it is democracy which should decide who leads Iraq,” he was quoted by the British newspaper as saying. Adel Abdel Mahdi, who lost to al-Jaafari by a single vote within the Shia bloc for the nomination to lead the government, has called for al-Jaafari to step aside.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met Jaafari in Baghdad. Rice appeared uncomfortable posing for pictures with him. “I heard their points of view, even though I disagree with them,” al-Jaafari said of his meetings with Rice and Straw. “People will react if they see the rules of democracy being disobeyed,” al-Jaafari was quoted as saying. “Every politician and every friend of Iraq should not want people to be frustrated. Everyone should stick to democratic mechanisms no matter whether they disagree with the person,” he added.
