Iraqi Shiite leader in Ankara, calls on Iraqiya to end boycott
A top Iraqi Shiite politician on Thursday urged Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc to end its boycott of parliament amid deepening sectarian divide in Iraq.
The political battle in Iraq erupted last month after the Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, on terrorism charges, sending him into virtual exile to the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. In protest, al-Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc has been boycotting parliament and Cabinet sessions, bringing government work to a standstill.
"I want to invite Iraqiya to return to parliament and take its place in parliament," Ammar al-Hakim, a powerful cleric and leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, said during a visit to Turkey. "We say that we will examine their just demands and do whatever is necessary."
Al-Hakim said that an administration run by members of only one sect was impossible.
Sunnis fear that without the American presence as a last-resort guarantor of a sectarian balance, the Shiite government will try to pick off their leaders one by one, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tries to cement his own grip on power.
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