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Iraq's Sunnis Arabs on
Wednesday insisted during a meeting with top Shiite
leaders that plans to adopt a federal structure for
the country be shelved before forming the new
government. "We insisted that the issue of
federalism be dropped before the new government is
formed," senior Sunni leader Salah al-Mutlaq said.
"It can be postponed to the next assembly," he
added.
Mutlaq and other Sunni leaders met a group of
leaders from the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which
has emerged as the single largest bloc with 128
seats in the 275-member Parliament after last
month's landmark elections.
The Kurdish Alliance won 53 seats, while the main
Sunni Arab coalition - the National Accordance Front
- grabbed 44 seats.
The Sunni leaders also discussed with their Shiite
counterparts the possible shape of the new
government.
"We discussed issues related to forming the new
government with Shiite leaders," Mutlaq said, adding
that the two groups would meet again next week with
senior Kurdish leaders for further talks.
The alliance suggested four nominees to be the next
prime minister in the government to be announced at
the end of the negotiations, which could take weeks,
said Shiite lawmaker Bahaa al-Aaraji, a member of a
seven-member committee forming Shiite political
policy.
The four include the current premier, Ibrahim al-Jaafari;
Adel Abdel-Mehdi of the Supreme Council of the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq; nuclear physicist
Hussein al-Shahrastani; and Nadim al-Jabiri of the
Fadhila Party, a religious group whose spiritual
leader is Moqtada al-Sadr's late father, Grand
Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
Ali al-Adeeb, a senior official from Jaafari's Daawa
Party, warned against choosing a prime minister who
will not listen to the views of other government
members.
"We don't want a prime ministerial candidate who
decides policies on his own but rather sticks to the
alliance's declared policies," said Adeeb.
Nasser al-Aani, a member of the Accordance Front,
said his bloc will leave the choice of prime
minister to the Shiites and instead work to build a
new government.
The talks come amid a spate of violence that
threatens to disrupt the efforts to form the new
government.
www.dailystar.com.lb
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