|
Iraq Shi'ites, Kurds agree to open govt to
Sunnis
28.12.2005
By Shamal Aqrawi
|
|
|
|
ERBIL,
Kurdistan-Iraq, (Reuters) - Leaders of the Shi'ite
and Kurdish blocs that emerged triumphant in this
month's Iraqi election agreed on Tuesday to push
ahead with efforts to bring Sunni and other parties
into a grand coalition government.
The visit of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim of the Shi'ite
Islamist Alliance to the Kurdish capital Arbil
opened a series of planned meetings among rival
factions intended to ease friction over election
results which Sunni and secular parties say have
been rigged and to begin building a consensus
administration.
"We agreed on the principle of forming a government
involving all the parties with a wide popular base,"
Kurdish regional leader Masoud Barzani told a joint
news conference after talks with Hakim, the dominant
force in the Alliance.
Hakim, whose bloc has run the interim government for
the past year in coalition with the Kurds, was due
to meet the other main Kurdish leader, Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani, on Wednesday, launching a
series of bilateral meetings that will include Sunni
Arab and secular leaders disappointed in the vote.
In Baghdad, several thousand supporters of secular
former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi marched in the
latest street protest against the results of the
Dec. 15 ballot. They want a rerun of a vote that
handed close to a majority to the Alliance, whose
armed supporters they accuse of forming Islamist
death squads.
Privately, however, many disappointed leaders
acknowledge the results will stand and say they will
negotiate a coalition.
After meeting Hakim, Talabani will see, among
others, Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, and Sunnis Adnan
al-Dulaimi and Tariq al-Hashemi of the Accordance
Front, Planning Minister Barham Saleh, a senior
official in Talabani's party, said.
PROCESS STARTING
"The Kurdish Alliance is making contacts with the
political blocs to prepare for a national unity
government," Saleh said.
"These are preliminary and bilateral discussions
between the Kurds and other groups ... There are
expectation that at the beginning of next year there
will be bigger meetings."
Sounding a cautious note ahead of negotiations that
no one expects to produce a government for many
weeks, Jawad al-Maliki of SCIRI ally Dawa, said:
"(Hakim) is not there to negotiate about forming a
government ... They might, in general, talk about
the new government and the results of the election.
"The Kurdish bloc will remain our strongest ally."
A provisional estimation by Reuters, based on
preliminary results, puts the Alliance on about 130
seats in the 275-seat assembly, just short of its
current slim majority, with the Kurds on 52, the
main Sunni group the Accordance Front on 41 and
Allawi's list on 24, well short of his present 40
seats. The secular Sunni National Dialogue Front
would have nine seats.
There is general agreement, supported with emphasis
by the United States, that a "national unity"
government is required to address sharply opposing
interests among the armed communities.
In a reminder of the grievances and tensions
underlying the process, police in the Shi'ite holy
city of Kerbala rushed to announce the discovery of
some 150 bodies in a mass grave dating from Saddam
Hussein's Sunni-led oppression of Shi'ites in 1991.
But, after some confusion, officials said the number
found was 31.
Reuters
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 