Iraqi members of Parliament approve the six Cabinet posts in a show of hands. (EPA)

BAGHDAD, 9 May 2005 — Iraq’s Parliament yesterday approved six Cabinet nominees, but the man selected to be the human rights minister rejected the post.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari had announced the Cabinet was complete after months of bickering to agree the balance of power between competing sectarian and ethnic blocs, and vowed to crack down on an escalating insurgency.

But Hisham Al-Shibli, the proposed human rights minister, said he had been picked purely to placate Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, and said he was rejecting the post.

“This post was given to me without anyone consulting me. I was surprised when they nominated me. It was just because I am a Sunni,” he said. “This is something I reject completely. I am a democratic figure... and I am completely against sectarianism.”

He was one of four Sunni Arabs approved for Cabinet posts by the Parliament.

The Sunni Arab minority dominated Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule but was sidelined after the elections, when most Sunni Arabs stayed away from the elections due to a boycott and fears of rebel violence. There are only 17 Sunni Arab lawmakers in the 275-member Parliament.

Wary of fueling sectarian and ethnic tension and determined to defeat an insurgency dominated by Sunni Arab guerrillas, the Shiite and Kurdish blocs that dominate Parliament pledged to include several Sunni Arabs in their Cabinet.

The confusion over the human rights portfolio is the latest embarrassment for Iraq’s leaders, who have infuriated many Iraqis by taking so long to agree a Cabinet.

Other appointments announced yesterday included the important defense and oil ministries.

Saadoun Al-Dulaymi, a Sunni Arab former military officer with tribal ties to Iraq’s rebellious western Anbar province, was named defense minister.

A Sunni Arab was also appointed to the Industry Ministry, and a Sunni Arab deputy prime minister was named to join Shiite and Kurdish deputies already appointed.

A respected Shiite official, Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum, was named oil minister. “Our new motto in the ministry is fight corruption and boost production,” Bahr Al-Uloum told a news conference.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces announced the arrest of a second Zarqawi aide in two days. “Terrorist Ammar Adnan Mohammad Hamza Zubaidi, known as Abu Abbas, was arrested Thursday in a raid in a Baghdad district,” the government said.

Zubaidi is believed to be responsible for coordinating 40 to 60 insurgents and a double car bomb attack on Abu Ghraib prison, 30 km west of Baghdad, that wounded at least 44 US soldiers and 12 prisoners on April 2.

He later masterminded a string of suicide bomb attacks on April 29 that killed “scores of innocent civilians”, the government statement said. Zubaidi is believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda front man Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi. The Zarqawi network claimed responsibility for the Abu Ghraib attack and the car bombings. Documents seized at the time of his arrest indicate Zubaidi was planning to assassinate a government official, the US military said in a statement.

He is also believed to have used 300 to 400 rockets and more than 720 cases of plastic explosives stolen from a weapons depot in Yusufiyah, about 20 km south of Baghdad, to make car bombs, the statement said.

Zubaidi’s arrest came after police announced Saturday the arrest of Ghassan Mohammed Amine Hussein Al-Rawi, in Rawa, 350 km west of the capital.

In continued violence, seven US service members were killed over the weekend, including four who fought insurgents who occupied a civilian hospital.

Three of the American servicemen died yesterday in two separate attacks in central Iraq. One soldier was killed and another wounded during an attack on their combat logistics patrol near Samarra, 95 km north of Baghdad. Two soldiers were killed during combat operations in an explosion near Khaldiyah, 120 km west of Baghdad.

On Saturday, three US Marines and a sailor were killed in fighting with insurgents in western Iraq, some of whom fought from inside a civilian hospital, the military said.

— Additional input from agencies