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Anti-Occupation
Iraqis Set Terms for Political Dialogue
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A file photo of Sheikh Harith al-Dari, AMS Secretary General.
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By
Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
February 16 (IslamOnline.net) – Iraqi national currents that boycotted
the controversial polls, comprising Sunni and Shiite powers, were quick
to declare their terms for joining the political process, amid repeated
announcements from powers that took part in the elections for including
all Iraqi fronts in writing down the constitution.
Despite
the announcements’ lacking of any concrete steps so far, the
anti-occupation powers – notably the Association of Muslim Scholars
(AMS) and firebrand Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's group – set their
own conditions for boarding on the political train should they be
invited to do so.
“The
AMS has not received any official invitation from the winning parties
(in the Jan 30 elections) on engaging in a dialogue to probe means of
achieving national reconciliation in Iraq or taking part in drafting the
new constitution,” AMS spokesman, Mothana Harith Al-Dari, declared
Tuesday, February 15.
He,
however, stressed that the AMS and other anti-occupation parties are not
waiting to receive such invitation from any party to engage in such a
dialogue.
“We
have been calling for achieving a national reconciliation, a call that
we are abided by before the Iraqi people, not before the parties that
took part in the polls that lacked legitimacy.”
The
election results left the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) with 132 seats of
the 275-member Transitional National Assembly.
The
Kurdish ticket, grouping the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), came second with 71 seats and interim
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s list ranked third with a feeble 13.8% of
votes, translated into 38 seats.
The
majority of Sunnis did not cast ballot in the polls, citing lack of
transparency and fair play under the US occupation.
The
Association of Muslim Scholars, the highest Sunni religious authority in
Iraq, championed the call for election boycott.
The
Islamic Party of Iraq, the main Sunni political party, had quit the
election race also over aggravating insecurity.
Illegitimate
In
a statement Tuesday, election-boycotting Iraqi groups put forth their
own conditions for engaging in dialogue on Iraq’s future and taking
part in drafting the new constitution.
“A
national reconciliation in Iraq and drafting a new constitution can’t
be achieved unless a range of conditions are met, atop of which is
setting an internationally-guaranteed timetable on the withdrawal of
occupation forces from Iraq,” according to a statement read out by
Sobhi Abdul Hamid, the secretary general of the Arab National Party in
Iraq Tuesday.
Respected
scholar, Harith Al-Dari, the Secretary General of AMS, was sitting next
to Abdul Hamid in the press conference.
The
statement also stressed elections lacked legitimacy as it was held
according to the interim administration law, boycotted by most of the
Iraqi people, and was rigged off.
“The
new government has no right to sign any agreement that harms Iraq’s
sovereignty, territorial integrity and wealth.”
The
statement also urged to endorse the right of Iraqis to resist the US
occupation forces in Iraq and acknowledge the Iraqi resistance.
It
also demanded a cancellation of the ethnic share principle adopted for
the political and legislative representation and respect of citizenship
and equality rights for all Iraqis.
The
statement, further, hit out at the “terrorist acts” targeting
innocent Iraqis and worship places in the violence-scarred country.
It
pressed for releasing all Iraqi detainees in the US-administrated jails,
stopping the crackdown operations and human rights violations as well as
rebuilding the devastated Iraqi cities and compensating their
inhabitants.
No
Invitation
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Draji said the Sadr group has not received any official invitation to take part in the political process.
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Sheikh
Abdel Hadi Al-Draji, Sadr representative, for his part, stressed that
the Sadr group has not received any official invitation to take part in
the political process.
He
noted that holding dialogue on the national reconciliation and taking
part in drafting the constitution would be possible only when the
parties that took part in the polls accept the document signed by the
anti-US occupation groups.
The
interim assembly will elect a president and two deputies, who in turn
will have to unanimously pick a prime minister.
The
new premier will then be tasked with choosing a cabinet that has to be
approved by a majority in parliament.
The
statement was signed by a host of Iraqi groups, topped by the
Association of Muslim Scholars, Sadr group, the Shiite Khaleseya
current, the Nasserite Party, the Iraqi Communist Party, and the Kirkuk
Arab group.
But
the Iraqi Islamic Party was absent of the meeting.
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