Ankara, Turkey: A top Iraqi Shiite politician yesterday urged the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc to end its boycott of parliament amid deepening sectarian divide in Iraq.
The political battle in Iraq erupted last month after the Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni vice president, Tarek Al Hashemi, on terrorism charges, sending him into virtual exile to the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. In protest, Al Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc has been boycotting parliament and Cabinet sessions, bringing government work to a standstill.
"I want to invite Iraqiya to return to parliament and take its place," Ammar Al Hakim, a powerful cleric and leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, said during a visit to Turkey. "We say that we will examine their just demands and do whatever is necessary."
Al Hakim said that an administration run by members of only one sect was impossible.
Sunnis fear that without the American presence as a last-resort guarantor of a sectarian balance, the Shiite government will try to pick off their leaders one by one, as Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki tries to cement his own grip on power.
Charges against Al Maliki
Last week, the leader of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, Ayad Allawi, accused Al Maliki, a Shiite, of unfairly targeting Sunni officials and deliberately triggering a political crisis that is tearing Iraq apart. Allawi, who is a Shiite, said Iraq needs a new prime minister or new elections to prevent the country from disintegrating along sectarian lines.
