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Hashemi says an Arab should be Iraqi president, not a Kurd |
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Hashemi says an Arab should be Iraqi
president, not a Kurd
9.3.2010
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March
9, 2010
BAGHDAD, — In
a surprise move immediately following the Iraqi
elections, Tareq al-Hashemi, the Iraqi
vice-president, told Arab media on Tuesday that he favors an Arab to take over the presidency.
He said that Iraq is an Arab country and that only
an Arab president could pull the nation back from
the dangers of renewed sectarian strife.
Hashemi is one of two vice-presidents to Jalal
Talabani Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, who has served as
Iraq's president since 2005. Adel Abul Mahdi, a Shia
politician, serves as the other vice-president.
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Tareq al-Hashemi, Iraqi vice-president |
Although the post is
largely ceremonial, the constitution does not limit
the president's involvement in Iraqi politics; a
Sunni Arab president who tours regional and foreign
capitals can garner much political clout for the
country's embattled minority.
Hashemi is currently a member of the Iraqiya
coalition chaired by Iyad Allawi, a secularist Shia
who served as prime minister from 2004 to 2005.
The Iraqiya coalition, which comprises Iraq's most
powerful Sunni parties, is reported to have made
significant gains in Iraq's north, particularly in
the multi-ethnic city of Mosul.
Analysts believe that Hashemi may feel buoyed by the
large Sunni Arab turnout and the large number of
votes the Iraqiya coalition is reported to have won.
He may also be capitalizing on disunity within
Kurdish ranks. The new Gorran party in Iraqi
Kurdistan has mobilized grassroots disdain of the
traditional parties,www.ekurd.netthe
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - to chip away at their
historical dominance of the Kurdish political
landscape.
The KDP and PUK ran as the Kurdish Alliance in the
March 7 poll; Gorran ran separately.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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