Saturday, May 12, 2007

 

SCIRI changes political platform, name

Politics
(Stratfor) - The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said May 11 it will change its political platform to align itself more closely with Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and to move toward an "Iraqization" of the party. SCIRI members said the party's name will be changed to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, removing the word "revolution," which was a reference to the fight against the Baathist regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein. The announcement follows a four-day SCIRI meeting of members from around the world.
Reuters reports that since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003, SCIRI has been a key player in Iraqi politics. It holds around a quarter of the seats in parliament in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. SCIRI's leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, is a powerful cleric who has good relations with the United States.
Officials said SCIRI would introduce terms such as democracy and elections into its political platform to reflect what they called the changing situation in Iraq. "There will be a change in two aspects -- the structure of the group and also in its political language, taking into consideration the political facts on the ground," another official who is at the conference said without elaborating.
"On political language, we will introduce terms more like democracy and elections. Those who follow us closely will notice that we have introduced new terms in our speeches for a while, now we are setting it out formally."

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