IRAQ GROK Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
[Links to full articles were active on the date posted here]
Supreme Court Ratifies Iraq Election Results [Jun 1]
“Iraq’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ratified the results of the nation’s March 7 parliamentary election, officially declaring the secular Iraqiya alliance the vote’s biggest winner. The televised announcement by the court’s top judge marked the first major step toward resolving Iraq’s election crisis and the seating of a new parliament. But the government impasse remains far from over, and it could still take weeks, perhaps months, before lawmakers elect new leaders. The March vote left the country without a clear winner, as none of Iraq’s major political coalitions won an outright majority. According to the Iraqi constitution, President Jalal Talabani now has 15 days to call parliament to its first session, where lawmakers could vote to elect a speaker and a president..” [Complete Report]
U.S. Welcomes Iraq’s Certification of Election Results [Jun 1]
“U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday welcomed the certification by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court of the March 7 parliamentary elections across the nation’s 18 provinces. “The electoral commission has worked in a careful, professional way to bring the process to this concluding point,” she said. “This experience demonstrates that Iraqis want to use the political process to choose their leaders and settle differences.” Clinton called on Iraq’s political leaders “to move forward without delay to form an inclusive and representative government that will work on behalf of the Iraqi people.”..” [Complete Report]
Iraq’s North Says Villagers Flee Iranian Shelling [Jun 1]
“Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region said on Tuesday dozens of families had been displaced in days of shelling by Iranian forces pursuing Kurdish rebels in the border region. Senior Kurdish officials denied reports that Iranian troops had entered Iraqi territory in pursuit of rebels from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, PJAK. They said more than 100 families had fled shelling over the past week along the northern stretch of Iraq’s border with Iran. “Iranian troops did not make any incursion into the Kurdistan region, but the villages near the border have faced artillery shelling for the past week, displacing some 120 families from Joman near the border,” said Major General Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga security forces..” [Complete Report]
Iraq President’s Bloc Opens Crucial Party Congress [Jun 1]
“Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan opened its party congress on Tuesday, just the third such meeting since its founding in 1975, amid charges of nepotism and graft. Demands for reform of the PUK are likely to dominate the meeting, due to last several days, as it faces an upstart opposition movement and a loss of ground to the Kurdistan region’s other leading bloc, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani. “Today was a good start, and I expect that it will be a successful conference,” said Fareed Asasart, a senior PUK official. “There will be more opportunities for young members to take part in the leadership of the PUK, and there is a quota for women as well.” Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Ammar al-Hakim, the head of a major Shiite political party, all attended the first day of the congress, which comes as parliamentary factions hold coalition talks nearly three months after a general election..” [Complete Report]
