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| Iraq |
| Jaafari urges Sunnis to form national unity coalition |
| 2005-12-18 |
| Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari yesterday urged Sunni Arabs to unite with Shi'ites in Iraq's new parliament following a general election that many hope can help ease ethnic tensions. "To our brothers in Mosul, Ramadi and Tikrit, I say your brothers in Najaf, Karbala and Hilla have waited a long time to work hand in hand with you, under the dome of the next parliament, to build the new Iraq," he announced. Outgoing premier Jafaari urged Sunni clerics to use their influence "to spread principles of unity and freedom" and reached out to Baathists from Saddam Hussein's former ruling party to help rebuild Iraq. Leading Sunni politician Adnan Al Dulaimi also called for a parliamentary coalition to promote national unity. "We will work towards finding a strong coalition in the national assembly that can protect the rights of Iraqis," said the politician, a leader of the Iraqi National Concord Front, the largest Sunni group to contest the vote. Sunnis, who largely boycotted a vote for a transitional parliament in January, flocked to polls on Thursday to elect a full-term parliament and boost their political representation over the next four years. Dulaimi also thanked insurgents for holding to a promise not to attack polling stations. "The election process succeeded ... Thank God there were only a few cases in a huge country where there is death and violence," Al Dulaimi said at a news conference. The Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda, meanwhile, urged the country's Sunni Arabs not to be fooled by the apparent success of the elections. "The coming days will show you the fate of this 'democratic marriage' and the marriage of prostitution that it celebrated," the group said in a statement on a frequently used Islamist website. "Their armed forces (of the Iraqi government) will be useless." The authenticity of the statement, however, could not be verified. The group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, is threatening to continue its attacks in Iraq and says it did not halt them during the polls. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed in the Internet statement that it carried out multiple attacks on US and Iraqi forces during the elections. A day before the elections, five militant groups including Al Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement condemning the elections, but stopped short of threatening to attack polling stations. This was perceived as an attempt to not harm voters from the Sunni Arab community. It remains unclear whether Jaafari - part of the conservative Shi'ite grouping, the United Iraqi Alliance, which is again likely to win a majority in parliament - will hold on to his post, particularly if Sunnis or secular Shi'ite candidate Iyad Allawi post strong results. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |