Thursday, November 09, 2006
Sunnis threaten to abandon political process
Politics
The main Sunni bloc in Iraq's Parliament threatened Wednesday to abandon the political process and take up arms if the government continues to ignore its calls to dismantle militias. Salim Abdullah, spokesman for the National Accordance Front, a bloc of three Sunni parties holding 44 seats in Parliament, told AFP his group had delivered a message to the government two weeks ago about dissolving the militias. A number of Sunni politicians reiterated Abdullah's concern.
COMMENT: This threat isn't new and was also delivered on Oct. 10 following the death of the brother of Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, the country's most prominent Sunni Arab politician and member of the National Accordance Front. "The clock is starting to strike after today's events," Khalaf al-Alayan, a Sunni parliament member told The Associated Press. "They (Shiite militias) consider Sunnis terrorists who must be killed. If the zero hour is coming, we will take the decisions needed to defend ourselves." COMMENT ENDS.
