BAGHDAD - Iraq’s Sunni leaders Monday rejected incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s candidacy as the next premier, their spokesman said. “We have sent a letter to our Shiite brothers explaining that our position remains the same -- that of rejecting Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s candidacy,” Thafer Al Ani, spokesman of Sunni-led National Concord Front told AFP.The National Concord Front has 44 seats in the 275-member Iraqi parliament. “They will get the letter in a short while,” he added.
Late Sunday Iraq’s other main political faction, the Kurdish group, rejected Jaafari staying on in the post. “We have once again rejected Jaafari’s candidacy,” Kurdish lawmaker Mahmud Othman told AFP after a meeting between leaders of the Kurdish coalition in parliament and representatives of Jaafari’s party.
IraqÂ’s Shiite parliament bloc formed a committee Sunday to decide the fate of Jaafari and end a standoff that has left a yawning power vacuum nearly four months after landmark elections in December.