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Iraq Shiites talk with Kurds; grave found
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-28 08:30
The Shiite religious bloc leading Iraq's parliamentary elections held talks
Tuesday with Kurdish leaders about who should get the top 12 government jobs, as
thousands of Sunni Arabs and secular Shiites protested what they say was a
tainted vote.
Meanwhile, workers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala uncovered remains
believed to be part of a mass grave dating to a 1991 uprising against Saddam
Hussein.
The talks between the majority Shiites and the Kurds were seen as part of an
effort to force the main Sunni Arab organizations to come to the bargaining
table. All groups have begun jockeying, and the protests are widely considered
to be part of an attempt by Sunni Arabs to maximize their negotiating position.
United Iraqi Alliance leader Abdul Aziz
al-Hakim, foreground and Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region,
are seen during a press conference at the council of Ministers in Irbil,
Iraq, Tuesday, Dec. 27. 2005.[AP] | The
discussions come at a critical time for Iraq, with the United States placing
high hopes on forming a broad-based coalition government that will
provide the stability and security it needs to allow American troops to
begin returning home.
Sunni Arabs formed the backbone of Saddam's government, and the Bush
administration hopes to pull them away from the insurgency that has ravaged the
country with daily bloodshed.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Shiite religious coalition dominating the
current government, traveled to the northern Kurdish city of Irbil for the
meeting with Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region.
"Today, we held preliminary consultations," al-Hakim said at a joint news
conference with Barzani. "All the details need to be studied and we need to
evaluate the previous alliance and study its weaknesses and strengths. Then we
will try to include the others."
A Kurdish coalition that includes Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and
President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is now the junior
partner in a government led by al-Hakim's United Iraqi Alliance.
Preliminary results from the Dec. 15 vote have given the United Iraqi
Alliance a big lead, but one unlikely to allow it to govern without forming a
coalition with other groups.
Final results are expected early next month, but the Shiite religious bloc
may win about 130 seats in the 275-member parliament ¡ª short of the 184 seats
needed to avoid a coalition with other parties.
The Kurds could get about 55, the main Sunni Arab groups about 50 and the
secular bloc headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite, about 25.
"Our goal is to have a partnership government that enjoys a wide base of
support," al-Hakim said.
Asked about claims by Sunni Arab groups and secular Shiites that the Dec. 15
poll was tainted by fraud, al-Hakim said "we have agreed on this with our
brothers in the Kurdish coalition. It is impossible to annul the elections
results or to hold new elections. We don't accept this."
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