Sunnis, Kurds shun Iraq parliament after no Maliki replacement named
by raheem salman
<http://www.thestar.com.my/Authors?q=%22Raheem+Salman%22> AND oliver
holmes <http://www.thestar.com.my/Authors?q=%22Oliver+Holmes%22>
Members of the new Iraqi parliament attend a session at the parliament
headquarters in Baghdad, July 1, 2014. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/2014/07/02/Iraq-lawmakers-convene-to-form-new-government-in-battle-with-caliphate/
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sunnis and Kurds walked out of the first session of
Iraq's new parliament on Tuesday after Shi'ites failed to name a prime
minister to replace Nuri al-Maliki, dimming any prospect of an early
national unity government to save Iraq from collapse.
The United States, United Nations, Iran and Iraq's own Shi'ite clergy
have pushed hard for politicians to come up with an inclusive government
to hold the fragmenting country together as Sunni insurgents bear down
on Baghdad.
The leader of the al Qaeda offshoot spearheading the insurgency, the
Islamic State, has declared a "caliphate" in the lands it has seized in
Iraq and Syria. Its leader vowed on Tuesday to avenge what he said were
wrongs committed against Muslims worldwide.
Despite the urgency, the Iraqi parliament's first session since its
election in April collapsed when Sunnis and Kurds refused to return from
a recess to the parliamentary chamber after Shi'ites failed to name a
prime minister.
Parliament is not likely to meet again for at least a week, leaving Iraq
in political limbo and Maliki clinging to power as a caretaker, rejected
by Sunnis and Kurds.
Under a governing system put in place after the removal of Saddam
Hussein, the prime minister has always been a member of the Shi'ite
majority, the speaker of parliament a Sunni and the largely ceremonial
president a Kurd.
The Shi'ite bloc known as the National Alliance, in which Maliki's State
of Law coalition is the biggest group, has met repeatedly in recent days
to bargain over the premiership but has so far been unable either to
endorse Maliki for a third term or to name an alternative.
Fewer than a third of lawmakers returned from the recess. Sunni parties
said they would not put forward their candidate for speaker until the
Shi'ites pick a premier. The Kurds have also yet to nominate a president.
Osama al-Nujaifi, a leading Sunni politician, former speaker and strong
foe of Maliki, warned that "without a political solution, the sound of
weapons will be loud, and the country will enter a black tunnel".
He said his bloc did not have a candidate for a speaker so far and was
waiting to see who the National Alliance would nominate for prime minister.
"If there is a new policy with a new prime minister, we will deal with
them positively. Otherwise the country will go from bad to worse,"
Nujaifi said.
Shi'ite lawmakers sought to shift blame to the Sunni and Kurdish blocs,
saying the premiership was the last position to be named in the
constitutionally-defined process.
Mehdi al-Hafidh, parliament's oldest member who is tasked by the
constitution with chairing the legislature's meetings until a speaker is
named, said the next session would be held in a week, if agreement was
possible after discussions.
The United States, which has been pressuring Iraq to form a more
inclusive government, said it was a welcome sign that the Iraqi
parliament had met on Tuesday as scheduled, but it said Baghdad should
move more quickly to form the new government.
"Let's be clear, this needs to happen as soon as possible," said State
Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. "It was important that Iraq's new
parliament convened today, as they pledged to do. ... But we do hope
that Iraq's leaders will move forward with the extreme urgency that the
current situation deserves."
FIGHTING RAGES
Baghdad can ill-afford further delays. Government troops have been
battling for three weeks against fighters led by the group formerly
known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This week it
shortened its name to the Islamic State and declared its leader "caliph"
- historic title of successors of the Prophet Mohammad who ruled the
whole Muslim world.
Speaking for the first time since then, the group's leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi vowed revenge for what he said were wrongs committed against
Muslims, calling on fighters to avenge them
"Your brothers, on every piece of this earth, are waiting for your
rescue," Baghdadi purportedly said in an audio message that was posted
online, naming a string of countries from Central African Republic to
Burma where he said violations were being committed against Muslims.
"By Allah, we will take revenge, by Allah we will take revenge, even if
after a while," he said in the Ramadan message. Baghdadi also called on
Muslims to immigrate to the "Islamic State", saying it was a duty.
Fighting has raged in recent days near former dictator Saddam Hussein's
home city, Tikrit, north of Baghdad. ISIL also controls suburbs just
west of the capital and clashes have erupted to the south, leaving the
city of 7 million confronting threats from three sides.
The United Nations said on Tuesday more than 2,400 Iraqis had been
killed in June alone, making the month by far the deadliest since the
height of sectarian warfare during the U.S. "surge" offensive in 2007.
In a reminder of that conflict, mortars fell near a Shi'ite holy shrine
in Samarra which was bombed in 2006, unleashing the sectarian bloodshed
that killed tens of thousands over the next two years. Samarra, north of
Baghdad, is now held by Baghdad's troops with ISIL in the surrounding
countryside.
Violence also struck the capital, where police found two bodies with
their hands tied behind their back and bullet wounds in the head and
chest in the mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Shula, police and medical
sources said.
A bomb went off in Baghdad's western Jihad district, killing two
passersby and wounding six more, police and medics said.
The insurgents' advance has triggered pledges of support for Baghdad
from both Washington and Tehran.
On Tuesday, Iran's deputy foreign minister said his country had not
received any request for weapons from Baghdad but was ready to supply
them if asked.
Iraq also flew Russian-made Sukhoi Su-25 jets delivered on Saturday for
the first time, state television reported, although there was no
independent confirmation.
Saudi Arabia pledge $500 million (£291.3 million) in humanitarian aid
for Iraqis to be disbursed through U.N. agencies, a Saudi Press Agency
statement said.
SHOUTING MATCH
Parliament opened its first session with an orchestra playing the
national anthem and the recitation of a Quranic verse emphasising unity.
Hafidh called on lawmakers to confront the crisis.
"The security setback that has beset Iraq must be brought to a stop, and
security and stability have to be regained all over Iraq, so that it can
head down the path in the right way toward the future," he said.
Lawmakers stood at the arrival of Maliki, who waved to his long-time foe
Nujaifi and shook hands with Saleh al-Mutlaq, another leading Sunni
politician.
But anger among the three main ethnic and sectarian groups soon flared
when a Kurdish lawmaker accused the government of withholding salaries
for the Kurds' autonomous region. Kadhim al-Sayadi, a lawmaker in
Maliki's list, shouted back that Kurds were taking down Iraqi flags.
"The Iraqi flag is an honour above your head. Why do you take it down?"
he shouted. "The day will come when we will crush your heads."
The dramatic advance by ISIL, which has dominated swathes of territory
in an arc from Aleppo in Syria to near the western edge of Baghdad in
Iraq, has stunned Iraq and the West. The group and allied militants
seized border posts, oilfields and northern Iraq's main northern city
Mosul in a lightning offensive in June.
Other Iraqi Sunni armed groups which resent what they see as persecution
under Maliki are backing the insurgency.
Kurds have taken advantage of the advance to seize territory, including
the city of Kirkuk, which they see as their historic capital and which
sits above huge oil deposits.
Results of April's elections initially suggested parliament would easily
confirm Maliki in power for a third term. But with lawmakers taking
their seats after the collapse of the army in the north, politicians
face a more fundamental task of staving off a breakup of the state.
Maliki's foes blame him for the rapid advance of the Sunni insurgents.
Although Maliki's State of Law coalition won the most seats, it still
needs allies to govern. Sunnis and Kurds demand that he go, arguing he
favours his own sect, inflaming the resentment that fuels the insurgency.
The United States has not publicly called for Maliki to leave power but
has demanded a more inclusive government in Baghdad as the price for
more aggressive help.
DEADLINE PASSES
Washington has so far pledged 300 mainly special forces advisers and
said on Monday it was sending a further 300 troops to help secure the
embassy and Baghdad airport.
Maliki's government, with the help of Shi'ite sectarian militias, has
managed to stop the militants short of the capital but has been unable
to take back cities its forces abandoned.
The army attempted last week to take back Tikrit but could not recapture
the city, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, where ISIL fighters had
machine-gunned scores of soldiers in shallow graves after capturing it
on June 12. Residents said fighting raged on the city's southern
outskirts on Monday.
On Friday, in an unusual political intervention, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, called on political blocs
to name the prime minister, president and speaker before parliament met
on Tuesday.
Now that deadline has passed, a prominent Shi'ite lawmaker told Reuters
he expected Sistani to keep up the pressure.
Maliki's close friends say he does not want to relinquish power,
although senior members of his State of Law coalition have told Reuters
an alternative premier from within his party was being discussed. Rival
Shi'ite groups also have candidates.
Many worry that a drawn-out process will waste precious time in
confronting the militants, who have vowed to advance on Baghdad. A
Shi'ite lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Things are
bad. The political process is not commensurate with the speed of
military developments."
(Additional reporting by Isra' al-Rubei'i, Ahmed Rasheed, Ned Parker and
Alexander Dziadosz in Baghdad and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow and Yara
Bayoumy in Dubai; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Peter Graff,
Paul Taylor, Anna Willard and Cynthia Osterman)
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Peace Is Doable
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