Sunni leaders open to joining Iraq’s new government

Reuters Via The Daily Star ^ | Aug. 15, 2014

[GonzoII]

BAGHDAD: Tribal leaders and preachers from Iraq's Sunni heartland who staged a revolt against outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government would be willing to join the new administration if certain conditions are met, a spokesman for the group told Reuters Friday.

The incoming prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, faces the daunting task of pacifying Anbar province, where Sunni frustrations with Maliki's sectarian policies have pushed some to join an insurgency led by Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militants.

The spokesman, Taha Mohammad al-Hamdoon, said Sunni representatives in Anbar and other provinces had drawn up a list of demands to be delivered to the moderate Shiite Abadi through Sunni politicians.

He called for government and Shiite militia forces to suspend hostilities to allow space for talks.

"It is not possible for any negotiations to be held under barrel bombs and indiscriminate bombing," said Hamdoon in a telephone interview.

"Let the bombing stop and withdraw and curtail the (Shiite) militias until there is a solution for the wise men in these areas."

After a U.S. occupation lasting nearly a decade, which ended in 2011 with a price tag of more than $2 trillion, Iraq is nowhere near the stability promised when Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

Maliki was widely resented as a divisive and authoritarian figure who drew comparisons with the former Iraqi dictator.

Winning over Sunnis, who dominated under Saddam and were sidelined by Maliki, will be vital to any efforts to contain a sectarian civil war marked by almost daily kidnappings, execution-style killings and bombings.

[GonzoII]

I don't see how ISIS can survive without the support of Sunnis.

[demshateGod]

“Maliki’s sectarian policies have pushed some to join an insurgency led by Islamic State of Iraq”

So ISIS’s sectarian policies don’t bother them? I’m not sure what makes them so mad at Maliki, but I’m pretty sure ripping the heads off little girls is worse.

[silverleaf]

I don’t see how sunnis can survive without the support of ISIS

I don’t see how any Iraqis will form an “inclusive” government with people they recognize as barbarous killers or their co-conspirators, including neighbors who turned against them

[silverleaf]

al-Maliki is and was the fall guy for obama’s failures to secure Iraq after Petraeus established a road to stability by forging alliances province by province, tribe by tribe, with Iraqi traditonal leaders who were fed up with al Qaeda “foreigners”

yes once it was clear the US was going to pull out and leave him on his own, al-Maliki purged his govt payroll and army of saddamites and sunnis- who he recognized as the butchers of his family, his people, his former prison guards and torturers

it will be interesting to see how long obamites blame Maliki for their failures