Posted by NEWS on 9/12/2004, 22:30:03 Published: December 9, 2004 BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 9 - Iraq's leading Shiite political groups formally announced today that they had formed an alliance to run in the national elections set for late January, saying their 23-point political platform included a call to start negotiations for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Members of the group who spoke at the news conference today included Ahmad Chalabi, the former exile and onetime Pentagon favorite; Hussein al-Shahristani, a nuclear scientist who was imprisoned by Saddam Hussein; and members of two important groups within the alliance, the Islamic Dawa Party and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri. Beyond a comment by Mr. Shahristani that the alliance's platform included a call to start talks on an American military pullout, members of the group offered little in the way of details on the other 22 points in their declaration of principles. The platform's main elements, Mr. Shahristani said, are sovereignty, unity and respect for Iraq's Islamic identity. "We may disagree on the details but we agree on the headlines," he said. The alliance leaders angrily rejected accusations by King Abdullah of Jordan and President Ghazi al-Yawer of Iraq about the influence Iran is trying to exert on the election. "It's very insulting to the majority of Iraqis," Mr. Shahristani said. "This is unwelcome interference in Iraqi affairs." Another official said that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of Sciri, had canceled a meeting with King Abdullah because of his comments. President Yawar and King Abdullah both warned this week that Iran was trying to influence the Iraqi elections. In an interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Yawar said the Iranian government was providing money and training to candidates sympathetic to Tehran, and King Abdullah warned that many Iranians were crossing the border to vote in the Iraqi elections. At a separate event today, Adnan Pachachi, the Iraqi elder statesman who has helped lead a broad movement to postpone the elections, said that he believed that if the elections were held as scheduled in late January, there might be no more than a 5 percent turnout in Sunni-dominated areas of Mosul, to the north, and in Anbar Province, west of Baghdad. That would mean a vote widely seen as illegitimate, he warned. Mr. Pachachi, who leads the Independent Democratic Gathering Party, has announced plans to submit a list of candidates, though he has not yet decided whether he will himself compete in the election. The agreement by the Shiites to unite politically, announced on Wednesday, came as several Sunni parties, including one that led a broad movement to delay the elections for six months, registered to field candidates. Together, the two decisions appeared to strengthen somewhat the chances of a January vote, despite the continuing violence here and calls by dozens of Sunni parties to postpone the elections. In another development, officials at Iraq's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that they supported a proposal made by the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, to spread the elections over a two- to three-week period in January, in an effort to ease security concerns. Dr. Allawi is in Europe, and details of the proposal will be ironed out on his return, the officials said. Shiite Arabs, representing 60 percent of Iraq's population, have long been dominated by the Sunni minority, particularly under the Hussein regime, and they see the elections as a chance to turn their majority status into political power for the first time. The new coalition, called the United Iraqi Alliance, brings together many of Iraq's best-known political figures, including the renegade cleric Moktada al-Sadr and Mr. Chalabi. It is composed mostly of Shiite parties, but also includes Sunnis, Kurds, Turkmens and tribal leaders from across Iraq in what the organizers hope will be seen as a diverse ticket with broad national appeal.
Shiite Groups Unite to Run in Iraq Elections Next Month
By ROBERT F. WORTH
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