Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Sadrists - will boycott parliament if al-Maliki meets Bush
Security, Politics
Fierce fighting between coalition forces and insurgents shut down an Iraqi city on Wednesday as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Jordan for a summit with President Bush aimed at halting escalating sectarian violence and paving the way for a reduction of U.S. troops. As al-Maliki arrived in Jordan, some of the prime minister's key Shiite backers - politicians loyal to the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - said they would carry out their threat to suspend their cooperation with Parliament because of the summit.
The political bloc whose members are known as Sadrists is a mainstay of support for al-Maliki. "We are sticking to our position. ... The boycott is still valid," Falih Hassan, a Sadrist legislator, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Bush is a criminal who killed a lot of Iraqis and we do not want him to interfere in Iraq's affairs. The Iraqi government should negotiate with the U.N. Security Council, not with the leader of the country that is occupying Iraq."
The political bloc whose members are known as Sadrists is a mainstay of support for al-Maliki. "We are sticking to our position. ... The boycott is still valid," Falih Hassan, a Sadrist legislator, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Bush is a criminal who killed a lot of Iraqis and we do not want him to interfere in Iraq's affairs. The Iraqi government should negotiate with the U.N. Security Council, not with the leader of the country that is occupying Iraq."
