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KLMNO THE WORLD New parliament meets in Iraq; leadership question hangs in the air by Leila Fadel


baghdad — As Iraq’s new par- liament convened more than three months after the national elections, the falafel vendor just outside the towering walls of the Green Zone remained resolutely unimpressed. Like many Iraqis, Raad Kadhim Nouri, 35, doesn’t think much will change for the better anytime soon. He and most of his customers had walked for hours in 120- degree heat because many roads across the city were closed to se- cure the sometimes-volatile cap- ital. “Where is the security if, for an 18-minute session, they close all


the streets?” asked Nouri, who has been selling sandwiches at the popular Haider Double Falafel fast-food joint since 1990. “It means there is no security.” Behind the Green Zone’s con-


crete fortifications, where most Iraqis aren’t allowed, the parlia- ment actually met for less than 18 minutes in what U.S. and Iraqi of- ficials hailed as a historic accom- plishment. Officials and analysts say that the formation of Iraq’s next government, which is to rule as U.S. troop levels drop, is likely months away. While Nouri served sandwiches to legislators’ security details and to Iraqis walking to government buildings, the parliament mem- bers took an oath, postponed


their first task — choosing the president — and quickly ad- journed. Now the ruling elite will probably spend weeks negotiat- ing backroom deals to divvy up Iraq’s top jobs. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-


Maliki was supposed to speak, along with the Iraqi president and the speaker of the parliament, of- ficials said. But when Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite whose Iraqiya bloc won the plurality in Iraq’s March 7 elections, demanded time equal to Maliki’s, the speech- es were canceled. Since the elec- tions’ results were announced, the two have been at odds over who will form Iraq’s next government. The Sadrists, as followers of an- ti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada


al-Sadr are known, had registered a complaint because U.S. Ambas- sador Christopher R. Hill would attend the session, but they still showed up. Nouri has been slinging fried chickpea patties into hot bread for decades here. He once got into an altercation with a relative of dictator Saddam Hussein and was jailed for two years. After the U.S.- led invasion that deposed Hus- sein, he closed the shop for three months. When it reopened, he had a front-row seat to the gate that leads into what he called the “mysterious” Green Zone. He has never been inside. Nouri said the parliament members are likely oblivious to the fact that he gets only one hour


of electricity every five hours. “Nothing will change from the last parliament,” he said. “We don’t even know why they’re meeting. All we know is the roads are closed.” He has lost count of the num- ber of bombings that have dam- aged his store — the last one just six months ago. Violence has dropped drastically since the darkest days of Iraq’s sectarian war, but there’s been an uptick in attacks during the political limbo after the elections. “There is no electricity — can you believe this?” said Turki Ali Hamza, a customer of Nouri’s. He had lost power for three days in Iraq’s blistering summer. Just across the street from him,


security guards for legislators ate as they waited for their bosses to be sworn in. “Those people brought the vio-


lence,” Nouri said of the Iraqi poli- ticians in the Green Zone. Many of them were exiles who returned after Hussein was deposed. “Yes, it is between them,” Ham- za responded. “Frankly, I don’t expect any- thing good from them,” Nouri said. “I just want one thing. I don’t want the mystery. They should open every single closed door and every single closed win- dow.”


fadell@washpost.com


Special correspondent Aziz Alwan contributed to this report.


TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2010


BEN CURTIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS


A young girl looks back as more than 100 Egyptian pro-Gaza activists board buses in Cairo carrying food intended for delivery to Gaza.


Israeli raid leaves Egypt in awkward spot


GAZA BLOCKADE IS AT ISSUE


Nation criticized for not fully opening crossing


by Janine Zacharia


gaza city — With pressure building on Israel to lift its block- ade of the Gaza Strip, Egypt finds itself in the uncomfortable posi- tion of continuing to help enforce the siege while watching Turkey outflank the region’s traditional Sunni Arab heavyweights in championing the Palestinian cause. Egypt, the only nation aside


from Israel to control a crossing into Gaza, has its own domestic political reasons for wanting the strip to remain closed. It views


Hamas, the radical Islamist group that controls the territory, as an ally of Egypt’s foremost opposi- tion movement: the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian officials worry that any opening of the ter- ritory could have negative politi- cal repercussions for President Hosni Mubarak’s government. But since May 31, when Israeli commandos killed nine activists in a melee aboard a Turkish aid flotilla that was bound for Gaza, Egypt’s stance has become in- creasingly awkward as calls have intensified for the blockade of the narrow coastal strip to end. Even as Turkey’s popularity in the re- gion has skyrocketed following its denunciations of Israel’s tactics, Egypt, Jordan and other Sunni powers have come under attack for not doing more to help the 1.5 million Palestinians living un- der siege in Gaza. “You basically had complicity on the part of the Egyptians, the Jordanians and others to keep


EYAD BABA/ASSOCIATED PRESS Palestinians seeking to enter Egypt wait at the Rafah border crossing for Hamas police officers to check their passports.


Hamas isolated, and now that’s been overturned by the flotilla disaster,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of ano- nymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The flotilla raid has embold- ened Hamas and dealt a fresh blow to Arab moderates who fa- vor Palestinian Authority Presi- dent Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement. It has also highlighted Egypt’s waning influence in the region, particularly its inability to mediate a reconciliation deal be- tween Fatah and Hamas, which have been divided since a bloody power struggle in 2007 left Ha- mas in control of Gaza. “It has put the moderates in an impossible situation,” said a for- mer senior Arab diplomat, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There is no way you can stand against an attempt to break the Gaza blockade, partic- ularly when people are killed.” Egypt has said it favors lifting the blockade, but has balked at fully opening the crossing under its control. Unlike Turkey, which sees no cost in strengthening Ha- mas, Egypt’s Mubarak is deeply


reluctant to embrace the group. At the same time, appearing in- sensitive to the Palestinians and cooperative with Israel carries its own political risks for Mubarak, who at 82 and in poor health may be trying to pave the way for his son Gamal to succeed him, espe- cially with elections coming up next year.


Amid domestic outrage follow- ing the flotilla deaths, Egypt an- nounced it was indefinitely open- ing its crossing with Gaza at Ra- fah. But of the 8,000 Gazans who tried to cross through Rafah in the past two weeks, 1,500 were turned back. Seven trucks of goods have crossed into Gaza via Rafah, said Ghazi Hamad, the Pal- estinian coordinator of all cross- ings into and out of Gaza. In the same period, hundreds have en- tered from Israel. The only Ga- zans who can travel via Rafah are those seeking medical care, stu- dents and holders of international visas or passports. Hamas leaders are prohibited from leaving via Rafah, and several were denied passage in the past two weeks, Hamad said. Meanwhile, Egypt continues to


DIGEST NUCLEAR EXPORTS


U.S. will object to China-Pakistan deal


The Obama administration has decided to object to a lucrative deal in which state-owned Chi- nese companies would supply Pa- kistan with two nuclear reactors, U.S. officials said. The deal is expected to be dis-


cussed next week at a meeting in New Zealand of the 46-nation Nu- clear Suppliers Group (NSG), which monitors such transac- tions. Experts had said it appears to be a violation of international guidelines forbidding nuclear ex- ports to countries that have not signed the nuclear Non-Prolifera- tion Treaty or do not have interna- tional safeguards on reactors. Pa- kistan has not signed the treaty. China has suggested that the sale is grandfathered from before it joined the NSG in 2004, because it was completing work on two earlier reactors for Pakistan at the time. But U.S. officials disagree. “Additional nuclear coopera- tion with Pakistan beyond those specific projects that were grand- fathered in 2004 would require consensus approval” by the NSG, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, “which we believe is extremely unlikely.”


State Department spokesman


Gordon DuGuid said the U.S. gov- ernment “has reiterated to the Chinese government that the United States expects Beijing to cooperate with Pakistan in ways consistent with Chinese nonpro- liferation obligations.” —Glenn Kessler


MEXICO


Gates, Slim to help fund public health Two of the richest men on the


planet, along with the govern- ment of Spain, announced Mon- day that they are donating a total of $150 million to fund new pub- lic-private health programs for the poorest citizens in Central America and southern Mexico. Billionaires Bill Gates, founder


of Microsoft, and Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecommunications mogul who in March was named the richest man in the world by Forbes magazine, have partnered their charitable foundations to bankroll an ambitious five-year project to improve health and nu- trition for mothers and children in the region; to provide child- hood vaccinations and to fight malaria and dengue; and to im- prove family planning for 10 mil- lion of the poorest of the poor. “It’s tragic that more money is


COLOMBIA


not spent,” Gates said at a news conference here, following a meeting attended by Mexican President Felipe Calderón. Gates predicted that his $50 million in- vestment over five years would help regional governments pro- vide better health, as the donation requires their ministers of health to meet goals if they want the money to continue to flow. Slim said he was spending his $50 million contribution — made from a near-monopoly on cellular phone service in Mexico — be- cause poor health in Mexico and Central America has created not only misery but slowed economic development. Spain will also do- nate $50 million.


—William Booth MIDDLE EAST


E.U. denounces Gaza blockade The European Union on Mon-


JUAN BARRETO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES


Gen. Luis Herlindo Mendieta is embraced by his family upon arriving in Bogota after being rescued from nearly 12 years of captivity with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. He was the highest-ranking officer held by the rebels.


day called Israel’s closure of Gaza “unacceptable” and offered to play a role in opening the borders, as Israel appointed three Israeli experts and two foreign observers to a panel to investigate its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. The E.U. move added to the in- tense pressure Israel has faced to lift the blockade since nine pro- activists died in clashes after Is-


raeli commandos boarded one of the aid ships last month. The three-year closure has withheld all but the most basic supplies from Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestin- ian residents. The most notable dissent has come from President Obama, who called the Gaza closure unsustain- able. The U.S. pressure resonates more with Israel because of its close alliance with Washington. —Associated Press


Barcelona bans veils in some public spaces: Barcelona has be- come the first big city in predomi- nantly Catholic Spain to forbid full face veils in public buildings such as markets and libraries. Full veils are banned in all public spac- es in the small towns of Lerida and El Vendrell, which like Barce- lona are in the northeastern re- gion of Catalonia.


Castro compares Israel to Nazis: A charge by former Cuban leader Fidel Castro that Israel would like to use Nazi extermination tactics against the Palestinians was de- nounced as outrageous by Israeli officials. Castro’s comments were issued by his country’s mission in Geneva as the U.N. Human Rights Council heard a report backing a worldwide boycott of Israel over its policies on occupied territory. —From news services


construct an underground wall to block tunnels used for smuggling, which is a mainstay of the Gazan economy. An Egyptian diplomat said it will be completed by the end of the summer. The perils and persistent neces-


sity of the smuggling trade were highlighted during a visit on Sun- day by Amr Moussa, the Egyptian secretary general of the Arab League. As he conferred with Ha- mas Prime Minister Ismail Hani- yeh at his home in the Beach refu- gee camp, a 17-year-old Palestin- ian boy was electrocuted in a tunnel. Hamas leaders are reluctant to publicly criticize Egypt because they fear that Rafah could be shuttered entirely. But privately, frustration is palpable. “Relations between Egypt and


Hamas are not so good,” one Ha- mas official said. “Egypt blames Hamas for not signing the recon- ciliation agreement. Still, people here, they expect Egypt to do a lot, to play a big role in breaking the siege, to put pressure on Israel.” Gaza, a narrow strip of territory sandwiched between Israel and Egypt along the Mediterranean


Sea, has long been subject to the whims of neighboring powers. Egypt controlled Gaza for most of the period from 1948 to 1967, when Israel seized control of the territory in the Six Day War. In 2005, Israel withdrew 8,000


Jewish settlers from the territory, and a year later Hamas defeated Fatah in Palestinian elections. In 2007, Hamas sent most of Fatah’s leaders fleeing to the West Bank after a bloody internecine battle; the move prompted Israel to in- tensify the closure of Gaza. Amid the impasse in reconcilia- tion talks, Faisal Abu Shala, a Fa- tah member of the defunct Pales- tinian legislature, is under his own kind of siege in Gaza. Hamas treats him and the few Fatah members who remain in Gaza more as members of an outlawed organization than as political ri- vals. On Sunday, two of his col- leagues were summoned to a Ha- mas intelligence center for in- terrogation. The Arab states “left us for a long time,” Abu Shala said. “They left us split and they left us suf- fering in Gaza.”


zachariaj@washpost.com


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