A10 The World BY LIZ SLY


baghdad — Iraqi Prime Minis- ter Nouri al-Maliki delayed the announcement of a new national unity government Monday amid signs that his recently revived alliance with the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr might be starting to crack. Lawmakers had gathered at parliament in the expectation that Maliki would announce at least a partial cabinet, as his aides had promised, putting an end to a political impasse that has para- lyzed Iraq for nine months. But bickering within the politi-


cal blocs over whom to name to cabinet posts forced a postpone- ment of the announcement at least until Tuesday. The Sadrist faction, which con-


trols 39 seats in the parliament, also objected to plans byMaliki to defer appointments to the sensi- tive and powerful ministries of Defense, Interior and National Security. Instead,Maliki said at a news conference that he will take charge of the three positions, on an interim basis, until there is agreement among the factions on permanent candidates. Adnan al-Asadi, the deputy in-


terior minister and a member of Maliki’s Dawa party, said the prime minister plans to control the security ministries for up to three months pending a final decision. Sadrists threatened to boycott


any government that did not in- clude appointments to the three ministries, saying they feared thatMaliki would take advantage of the temporary measure to con- solidate his power within the security forces. “It is an attempt by him to


control the security agencies be- cause he is afraid and he doesn’t trust the other factions,” said


Pentagon, State blasted overKyrgyz jet-fuel deals


BY ANDREW HIGGINS ANDWALTER PINCUS


To keep U.S. warplanes flying


over Afghanistan, the Pentagon alloweda “secrecyobsessed”busi- ness group to supply jet fuel to a U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, turn- ing a blind eye to an elaborate fraud involving fuel deliveries from Russia, according to con- gressional investigators. In a report due to be released


Tuesday, theHousesubcommittee on national security and foreign affairs hammers the Pentagon as well as State Department diplo- mats for ignoring red flags raised by jet fuel contracts worth nearly $2 billion for the Manas Transit Center, a U.S. base used for in- flight refueling overAfghanistan. The U.S. military’s long but


mostly hidden dependence on Russian fuel is a sensitive issue. The congressional report, which details the use of false end-user certification to evade Russian ex- port restrictions, comes as Mos- cowandauthorities inKyrgyzstan arepushingtowrest controlof the lucrative jet fuel supply business from a Gibraltar-registered busi- ness group comprising Mina Corp. andRed Star Enterprises. Subcommittee Chairman John


F. Tierney (D-Mass.) warned that the United States “should be very cautious about the potential for overreliance on Russian fuel sup- plies supporting the mission in Afghanistan.” He added that the previous use of deception to ob- tainRussian fuel raised concerns. The report, which follows an


eight-month investigation into the jet fuel contracts, found no evidence of corrupt ties between Mina Corp. or Red Star and the families of Kyrgyz leaders. Yet it cautioned that a lack of proper oversight and a neglect of Ameri- ca’s broader interests in the re- gion had often left Washington blind to “political, diplomatic and geopolitical collateral conse- quences.” These include the oust- er of two Kyrgyz governments in popular revolts stirred in part by anger over alleged jet fuel corrup- tion as well as U.S. ties withMos- cow. Only last month did the De-


fense Logistics Agency, or DLA, askwho owns theGibraltar-regis- teredbusinessgroupthathaswon jet fuelcontractswithatotalvalue of about $3 billion in Kyrgyzstan andAfghanistan. John Lough, a spokesman for


MinaCorp.andRedStar,declined to comment on the report’s find- ings, saying the firms had not yet seen it. The DLA also declined to comment for the same reason. higginsandrew@washpost.com pincusw@washpost.com


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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010 Sadrist objections toMaliki’s plans delay newIraqi government


Sadrist lawmakerAmiral-Kinani. “This is evidence that he doesn’t have goodwill.” The dispute goes to the heart of


a long-standing feud between Maliki and the Sadrists, whose power in Iraq was dramatically curtailed after the prime minister used his security forces to crush theirMahdiArmy militia in 2008. The Sadrists had been reso-


lutely opposed to a second term for Maliki until, in a surprise turnabout, Sadr agreed to back


him in October under the terms of a deal brokered by Iran, break- ing the ice on the long-dead- locked negotiations and paving theway for the incumbenttokeep his job. But many Sadrists were openly


dismayed by the agreement and have said privately that they con- tinue to oppose a second term for Maliki. The United States was also troubled that the Sadrists had emerged as the deal-breakers in


the government negotiations, and U.S. Embassy officials have expressed concerns that the Sadrists will receive powerful po- sitions in the newcabinet. A Sadrist boycott would dash


Maliki’s hopes of leading a gov- ernment grouping all of Iraq’s factions and ushering in what Iraqi politicians are hailing as a newera of reconciliation. “We will not let them with-


draw,” Maliki told reporters. “We don’t want anybody to be out of


the government.” The mostly Sunni Iraqiya bloc


andtheKurdish alliance said they had reached agreement withMa- liki on their nominations to the new cabinet, and a session of parliament was scheduled for Tuesday to announce the lineup. Some Iraqiya and Kurdish leg-


islators speculated that the Sadrist boycott threats were trig- gered in part by indications that Malikiwouldnot give the Sadrists one of the three coveted deputy


prime minister slots. But others said they shared the


Sadrists’ concerns about Maliki assuming temporary control of the security ministries. “I am worried, too. I don’t like


it,” said independentKurdish leg- islator Mahmoud Othman. “Ev- erybody complained in the past that he was trying to control the security forces, that he works alone, and this is a continuation of the same story.” slyl@washpost.com


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