Saturday, November 18, 2006
Government divide increases over al-Dhari warrant
Politics
Iraq's government was deeply split after the country's vice-president and other Sunni leaders denounced an arrest warrant issued by the Shia interior ministry against a senior Islamic cleric. The cleric, Harith al-Dhari, heads the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, which has close contacts with the Sunni insurgency. But he has been out of Iraq for five months and it was unclear why the warrant was announced now. In Jordan Mr Dhari denounced the warrant as "proof of the failure and the confusion of the Iraqi government". Shia ministers were trying to divert attention from the security scandals involving the links between militias and police, he suggested.
Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister, said Mr Dhari was wanted for inciting terrorism and violence. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, described Mr Dhari as a man with "nothing to do but incite sectarian and ethnic sedition". But the vice-president, Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, said the warrant was "destructive to the national reconciliation plan". Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni parliamentary leader, told al-Jazeera that Mr Dhari "is not calling for sectarianism and violence, and he's not calling for terrorism. The government has made a wrong judgment in this case. We consider Dhari one of the best symbols of the Sunni leaders."
Other leading Sunnis urged Sunni ministers to leave the government in protest. Mr Talabani called for an emergency meeting of leaders to prevent the government's collapse. Earlier in the week, a meeting of a security committee had reportedly turned into "a shouting match". The president was quoted as saying: "We have to decide if we want a state or not." Yesterday the deputy prime minister, Barham Salih, a Kurd, sought to distance the government from the affair. He said the warrant had been sought by the judiciary, not the government. "There are some cases that are under investigation and it is up to the Iraqi judiciary to take the decisions," he said. "There is a real struggle going on that is getting deeper. It is not a sectarian struggle but a struggle between extremists and moderates. It is time for the moderates to come together."
Other leading Sunnis urged Sunni ministers to leave the government in protest. Mr Talabani called for an emergency meeting of leaders to prevent the government's collapse. Earlier in the week, a meeting of a security committee had reportedly turned into "a shouting match". The president was quoted as saying: "We have to decide if we want a state or not." Yesterday the deputy prime minister, Barham Salih, a Kurd, sought to distance the government from the affair. He said the warrant had been sought by the judiciary, not the government. "There are some cases that are under investigation and it is up to the Iraqi judiciary to take the decisions," he said. "There is a real struggle going on that is getting deeper. It is not a sectarian struggle but a struggle between extremists and moderates. It is time for the moderates to come together."
