Sadrists Reject Allawi Coalition

informedcomment/Al-Hayat: The fundamentalist Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi alliance, one of the leaders of which will be prime minister in the new government, continues to construct its internal alliances. It will appoint as "Political Overseer" [marja`iyyah siyasiyya) Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq [SCIRI]. By virtue of it, SCIRI will drop the candidacy of Adel Abdul Mahdi for prime minister, ceding that office to the Dawa Party, its coalition partner, which backs Ibrahim Jaafari to continue as PM.

In a sign that not all the challenges that the United Iraqi Alliance faces come from external enemies, the Sadr Movement, among the more important components of the coalition, announced its dissatisfaction with al-Hakim's talks with the two main Kurdish leaders, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani. The Sadrists say that they are drawing a line in the sand, and simply will not accept any coalition with the bloc of Iyad Allawi. Jalal Talabani had pressed al-Hakim to accept a government of national unity, and Allawi had been invited to the talks (he refused to come). Al-Hakim seemed to accept the desirability of a broad-based coalition.

Iyad Allawi and his National Iraqiyah party are strong secularists and many have a background in the Baath Party. The Sadr movement is composed of hardline Shiite puritans, many from urban ghettos or poor Marsh Arab villages, i.e., the sorts of people that suffered most under the Sunni-dominated Baath Party. Read more