The Doctor of Politics

By Bobby Ghosh/Baghdad

Ibrahim al-Jaafari is no strongman. He speaks so softly that he often seems to be whispering to himself. Even when audible, he can be hard to understand: his vocabulary is drawn heavily from classical Arabic, full of flowery phrases and literary allusions. Although al-Jaafari served as a Vice President in Iraq's interim government, his patrician bearing seems more suited to studying philosophy than engaging in the dirty, dangerous business of Iraqi politics. In a world of tough-guy posturing, al-Jaafari doesn't hide his sensitive side: he bonded with former U.S. proconsul Paul Bremer over their mutual passion for gourmet cuisine.

To war-weary Iraqis and Americans alike, al-Jaafari's gentility is a welcome antidote to the country's chronic acrimony. After weeks of negotiations, al-Jaafari, 58, has emerged as the favorite to become Iraq's first elected Prime Minister--the most powerful position in the incoming government. His main challenger has been Ahmad Chalabi, the former favorite of the Pentagon, whose relationship with the U.S. soured after he was accused of passing secrets to Iran. Though he commands little popular backing, Chalabi waged an aggressive campaign for the premiership, hoping to pick up support from uncommitted members of the Sistani List, or slate of parties approved by Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, to which both Chalabi and al-Jaafari belong. But al-Jaafari's ties to the list's powerful religious bloc give him a formidable advantage.

If he gets the top job, al-Jaafari, a physician by training, will have to display a surgeon's dexterity to hold together fractious Shi'ites, cool off restive Kurds and reach out to disaffected Sunni Arabs--all while figuring out how to accommodate a U.S. military presence that is widely resented but still indispensable to the country's security. It helps that al-Jaafari is acceptable to most of Iraq's ethnic, religious and political groups; opinion polls last year identified him as one of Iraq's most respected politicians. "He is not a divisive figure, and in Iraq today, that is a major asset," says Wamidh Nadhmi, a political scientist and moderate Sunni politician. "I think most Iraqis will feel they can trust him."

That said, al-Jaafari is a man with a past. He leads the Islamic Dawa Party, a deeply religious Shi'ite group that spearheaded a rebellion against Saddam Hussein's regime in the late 1970s. Dawa received backing from the Shi'ite regime in Iran. During the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s, Saddam made membership in the party punishable by death and brutally suppressed the movement. Like much of the Dawa leadership, al-Jaafari fled to Iran and then to Britain. The group's past activities are murky. Al-Jaafari was a member of Dawa's political wing when it bombed the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait and the Iraqi embassy in Beirut in the 1980s. Al-Jaafari has denied any involvement in the attacks.

Since returning to Iraq after the U.S. invasion, al-Jaafari has worked to shore up his secularist credentials. "He may head a Shi'ite party, but he has never sounded like a Shi'ite politician," says Ammar Zain Alabideen, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, the leading Sunni political group. Dawa retains ties to the Iranian government, but al-Jaafari says that won't jaundice the way he views Washington. "The U.S. liberated Iraq from Saddam, and for that we will forever be grateful," he told TIME.

The biggest challenge facing al-Jaafari and the newly elected 275-member National Assembly will be proving they can run Iraq on their own. Al-Jaafari says he hopes to form a national-unity government, with a rainbow cabinet of all major parties, including Sunnis, most of whom boycotted the Jan. 30 election. "This is not a time to be excluding anybody," he says. Indeed, al-Jaafari will need all the help he can get. --By Aparisim Ghosh/Baghdad. With reporting by Timothy J. Burger/Washington

With reporting by Timothy J. Burger/Washington