 | It's from the LA Fishwrap, so I'm giving it a nice big shaker of salt. |
Only days after deciding to nominate incumbent Ibrahim Jafari to continue as Iraq's prime minister, his United Iraqi Alliance coalition on Wednesday was showing signs of fraying. Leaders of the Al Fadila al Islamiya party, which is associated with radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr and had offered its own candidate for the post, threatened Wednesday to break from the dominant alliance if the UIA did not make more overtures to Sunni Arabs, restrain Shiite paramilitary groups and rule in a more collaborative style. | This whole "sharing power" concept is still fairly repugnant in some cicles. Plus the mullahs must be yanking Tater's chain again. |
As legislators prepare to form Iraq's first permanent government since Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003, the Fadila ultimatum suggested that Jafari's nomination, approved by a one-vote margin among the coalition's 128 members of parliament, was causing tension within the Shiite-led alliance. "We want Jafari to agree to deal with the security situation, the militias and to find a solution to all of this sectarian strife," said Hasan Shammari, a spokesman for Fadila, known in English as the Islamic Virtue Party. "We are seeking a government that will represent all segments of Iraqi society — that will accept Shiites, Sunnis, secularists and Kurdish people but mainly Tater's boyz. If the UIA is unable to do this, we will remove ourselves from the alliance."| "Yeah, we'll hike up the hems of our robes and go off to sulk with the Sunni. You'll be sorry when we're gone." |
Fadila's threat shows how difficult it will be for Jafari, a Shiite theologian who has presided over a year of gas and oil shortages, police abuse scandals and sectarian killings, to keep the Shiite bloc in line over the next four years. As the nominee of the largest bloc in the new 275-seat legislature, Jafari would probably still become prime minister even without the support of Fadila, which holds about 15 seats. He retains the backing of the two largest Shiite parties and several Kurdish and secular blocs. The parliament must select a presidential council, which then approves the prime minister and his Cabinet. But a defection by Fadila could make the contentious negotiations over Cabinet posts even more difficult and delay the formation of Iraq's permanent government. Despite their party's links to Sadr and the cleric's Al Mahdi militia, Fadila leaders said Wednesday that paramilitary groups were destabilizing Iraq. | "Not ours, though. Even though we're now part of the government, we maintain our legitimate right to fight for the resistance against our, um...occupiers. Ev'rybody knows that." |
But Khudayr Khuzai, a legislator with the Islamic Dawa Party, one of the coalition's larger Shiite groups, discounted Fadila's threat as political posturing in advance of negotiations over Cabinet posts and expressed doubts about whether the group would break ranks with the Shiite bloc. "The UIA is the water in which we all swim," Khuzai said. "Once one chooses to leave the water, his political life will come to an end." |