Shiite and Kurdish sources suggest that there have been sharp differences between President Jalal Talbani and Vice President Adel Abdulmahdi, and between PM Ibrahim Jaafari and deputy PM Ahmad Chalabi, and an apparent rapprochement between Chalabi and Abdulmahdi, a permanent candidate for the Premiership. Meanwhile, it is said that Jaafari plans a government reshuffle in which Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Al-‘Ulum might lose his job. Sources close to the latter admit that differences exist between the two men, but not to the point that Jaafari would seek to unseat Bahr Al-‘Ulum. According to these sources, Jaafari criticizes Bahr Al-‘Ulum for mismanaging the Ministry, and for failing both to handle the fuel crisis and to act independently of the influence of his father Sayyed Mohammad Bahr Al-‘Ulum, with whom Jaafari is on bad terms.
Iraq Information Report - September 7, 2005 - 6th Year, № 6/671