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Iraq Shiite and Sunni MPs sign new 'unity'
pact
14.1.2008
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January 14 2008
BAGHDAD, -- Parliamentary blocs representing
Sunnis, Shiites and independents on Sunday signed on
to a common platform stressing the need for Iraqi
national unity and central control over oil
reserves.
The blocs, should they come together as is expected
in a new political alliance, would be a dominant
force in the 275-member parliament, with a total of
more than 100 seats.
Among those who signed the statement of common
understanding are the movement of radical Shiite
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the secular Iraqi National
List of former prime minister Iyad Allawi and Sunni
leader Salah al-Mutlak's National Dialogue Front,www.ekurd.net
a joint statement said.
The statement said the pact was signed "for the sake
of the higher national interest, to maintain a
united Iraq free of sectarian divisions ... and to
support national reconciliation."
The parties demanded that oil and gas "and other
natural resources should remain Iraqi treasures" and
not be allowed to be signed away by regional
authorities.
The statement expressed "deep concern at individual
acts without reference to central government, such
as the signing of contracts with foreign companies"
-- an allusion to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region,
which has signed 15 crude oil contracts with 20
foreign concerns since August.
The parties also came out in support of a political
agreement over the future of northern oil Kurdish
city of Kirkuk, rather than a promised referendum
that had been due to be held last year.
According to article 140 of the Iraqi constitution,
a referendum was supposed to have been held by the
end of 2007 to decide whether Kirkuk with its oil
wealth should be integrated into the autonomous
Kurdish region.
However, the poll was not held on time and has been
delayed for six months, amid calls that it be
scrapped altogether.
The statement also called for the "mobilisation of
resources to complete building the Iraqi security
forces by training them to enforce law and protect
the country and so end all justification for the
presence of occupying forces on Iraqi soil."
Kurdistan regional president Massud Barzani reacted
angrily.
"These actions against section 140 (of the
constitution) will not succeed," he told a news
conference in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan
region.
"These are the same people who are against the Iraqi
constitution and they couldn't do anything at that
time," he said.
Sunday's agreement is seen as a prelude to the
possible formation of a new parliamentary bloc,
which would be powerful enough to challenge a
four-party alliance Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
formed in August.
Maliki's political alliance -- comprising his Dawa
Islamic Party, Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi's
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC),www.ekurd.net
one of Iraq's most
powerful Shiite factions, President Jalal Talabani's
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Barzani's Kurdistan
Democratic Party -- has about 110 seats in
parliament.
The new political bloc, should its planned formation
go ahead, would have slightly less than that number
but would be in a position to put pressure on the
Shiite prime minister.
"This is a memorandum of understanding to correct
the views being expressed in parliament and to
resolve disputes," said Sadrist MP Nassar al-Rubaie.
"We are not forming a coalition in the meantime but
if in the future we manage through this alliance to
get out of our political crises, we may well form a
coalition."
AFP
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