posted April 09, 2005 12:32 AM              

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BAGHDAD As Saddam Hussein watched on a television in his cell, Iraq's National Assembly on Wednesday appointed one of his most tenacious opponents to the office of president, taking a significant step in forming a new government and breaking a political deadlock nearly 10 weeks after general elections.
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The assembly selected Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, as president; Adel Abdul Mahdi, a prominent Shiite Arab politician, as vice president, and Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, the Sunni Arab president of the interim government, as the other vice president.
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The three men are expected to take their oaths of office on Thursday and may name a prime minister on the same day, assembly members said.
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The appointments came after the country's main political parties reached an agreement over the selection of the top officials, ending a stark impasse that had threatened to wreck the confidence built during the Jan. 30 elections. Then Iraqis defied insurgent threats to walk in droves to polling stations.
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The Iraqi public has shown increasing impatience with the gridlock, and American military commanders have warned that a continued lack of a government could lead to a rise in insurgent violence.
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But new problems erupted at the assembly meeting, as many Shiite members called for the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to be dissolved as soon as Talabani and his deputies were sworn in. Shiite officials have been particularly critical of Allawi's rule, saying he has brought back into the government former senior members of the Baath Party who played key roles in oppressing ordinary Iraqis, especially Shiites and Kurds.

After a vote was held to formalize the appointments, assembly members marched up to the front of the meeting room in the heavily fortified Green Zone to congratulate Talabani one by one, shaking his hand or kissing him on both cheeks.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/06/news/baghdad.html

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