Iraq Government In Secret Deal With Anbar Awakening To Replace Sunni Walkouts
They’re denying it, but according to my sources, it’s true. Maliki sees it as essentially a no-lose, and made sure the secret talks were not so secret in order to leverage the IAF. Either the U.S.’s new Anbar allies come up with the Ministers, or a panicked IAF will jump back into the government. Under either scenario, another major step forward in Iraq’s political reconciliation is achieved.
Voices of Iraq:
The Iraqi government denied calls on the Anbar Awakening Council to put forward replacements for Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front’s (IAF) ministers who quit the cabinet a few month ago, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.
“Negotiations and meetings are underway between the government, the prime minister, and IAF representatives,” Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a Baghdad-based press conference on Wednesday.
“The government still welcomes the return of IAF members, despite the expiration of the time limit set for them,” al-Dabbagh noted.
Informed sources spoke earlier of governmental calls on the Anbar Awakening Council to nominate replacements for IAF ministers who withdrew from the government in early August 2007.
In recent statements, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave the withdrawn ministers a 10-day time limit to return to the government, describing it as their “last opportunity.”
Al-Maliki noted that the IAF was given ten days to come up with new ministers replacing those it had withdrawn, adding the replacements would be chosen from a list offered by the Anbar Awakening Council, a group of tribal representatives in the predominantly Sunni province.
The IAF withdrew its six ministers, including Deputy Premier Sallam al-Zawbaie, from al-Maliki government in protest to the government’s “failure to meet the IAF demands.”
The IAF is composed of three main Sunni organizations: the Iraqi Islamic Party, led by Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi; the Iraq People’s Congress, led by Adnan al-Dulaimi; and the National Dialogue Council of Sheikh Khalaf al-Alyan.
The front holds 44 in the 275-seat parliament and is the third largest bloc after the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), 83 seats, and the Kurdistan Coalition (KC), 55 seats.
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Right on Pat, “political reconciliation” is the key phrase and not enough events are being depicted as such
November 28th, 2007 at 4:41 pmSo does this mean that bottom up reconciliation can have an effect on high level reconciliation? hmmm? One more time, all together now, what was the mission of the surge?
November 28th, 2007 at 4:58 pm