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Shiite,
Kurdish parties in bid to form new bloc, intend to keep al-Maliki |
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Shiite, Kurdish parties in bid to form new
bloc, intend to keep al-Maliki
22.6.2007
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June
22, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Iraq's politicians are trying to
stitch together a new alliance in parliament and
government shakeup to set in motion the adoption of
laws believed essential to healing the nation's
wounds and satisfying increasingly strident American
demands for action.
Lawmakers and aides familiar with the negotiations
said Nouri al-Maliki, the Shiite prime minister,
would remain at the head of the next government. He
was under pressure, however, to broaden the circle
of those who make decisions beyong the handful of
fellow Dawa party leaders.
The larger body would include the president and his
two deputies, according to those who spoke to The AP
only on condition of anonymity.
The two weeks of secret talks were among Iraq's two
largest Shiite parties — Dawa and the Supreme
Islamic Council of Iraq, or SICI — and the two main
Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni
Arab group, has been approached to join the bloc,
along with independent Shiite legislators.
"There are efforts to form a new bloc to get us out
of this crisis," said a senior Dawa Party member
familiar with the negotiations. "If it works,
legislation will pass," he said.
Islamic Party lawmaker Salim Abdullah confirmed
attempts to build a new "bloc of moderates," with
U.S. approval. He declined to say whether the
Islamic Party was approached to join.
Those who spoke to AP said the 30 lawmakers loyal to
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and militant
Sunni Arab groups in parliament would be excluded.
Sadrist legislators are boycotting parliament to
protest the government's failure to protect an
important Shiite shrine north of Baghdad that was
bombed last week for the second time in less than 16
months.
Six cabinet ministers loyal to al-Sadr quit the
government in April, and Al-Maliki has not replaced
them.
Al-Maliki spoke this week of a "comprehensive"
makeover in government, doing away to a degree with
the sectarian, power-sharing formula that has
dictated power sharing in Irag since Saddam Hussein
was ousted in 2003.
If formed, the new bloc would command a majority of
at least 160 seats, enough to secure the adoption of
draft laws on the equitable distribution of Iraq's
oil wealth, reinstating junior members of Saddam's
Baath party to government jobs and the scheduling of
local elections.
Also at stake are constitutional amendments demanded
by minority Sunni Arabs.
Adoption of the laws might give the administration
of U.S. President George W. Bush and the American
military some of the breathing space they hope the
ongoing security crackdown will provide the al-Maliki
government.
Progress in Iraq is desperately sought before
reports to Congress next month and again in
September.
AP
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