Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media:AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 26 August 2006
NAJAF, Iraq, Aug 26, 2006 (AFP) - Powerful Shiite politician Abdel Aziz
al-Hakim pushed for southern and central Iraq to become an autonomous region
Saturday, as Sunni tribal chiefs opposed it at a meeting with the premier.
"Our biggest assurance to our people is that federalism be implemented in
the centre and south of Iraq," said Hakim, head of the Supreme Council of
Islamic Revolution in Iraq, in a statement issued by his office in the
Shiite clerical capital of Najaf.
"This is a guarantee to our sons and grandsons so that injustice will not be
revived. Supreme Council activists must orient and convince the people of
federalism as it has advantages for them," Hakim was quoted as saying.
Sunni delegates at a meeting between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and
tribal chiefs to promote peace in Iraq, however, expressed opposition to
federalism.
Abdulrazak Suleiman, chief of a Sunni tribe that straddles Anbar and
Salaheddin provinces west and north of the capital, called for federalism to
be put on hold for five years.
Sunnis oppose federalism citing fears it would rob the former elite
community of the country's vast oil resources which are in the Shiite south
and the Kurdish north -- where the Kurds already enjoy broad autonomy.
Byline: n/a
Date: 26 August 2006
NAJAF, Iraq, Aug 26, 2006 (AFP) - Powerful Shiite politician Abdel Aziz
al-Hakim pushed for southern and central Iraq to become an autonomous region
Saturday, as Sunni tribal chiefs opposed it at a meeting with the premier.
"Our biggest assurance to our people is that federalism be implemented in
the centre and south of Iraq," said Hakim, head of the Supreme Council of
Islamic Revolution in Iraq, in a statement issued by his office in the
Shiite clerical capital of Najaf.
"This is a guarantee to our sons and grandsons so that injustice will not be
revived. Supreme Council activists must orient and convince the people of
federalism as it has advantages for them," Hakim was quoted as saying.
Sunni delegates at a meeting between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and
tribal chiefs to promote peace in Iraq, however, expressed opposition to
federalism.
Abdulrazak Suleiman, chief of a Sunni tribe that straddles Anbar and
Salaheddin provinces west and north of the capital, called for federalism to
be put on hold for five years.
Sunnis oppose federalism citing fears it would rob the former elite
community of the country's vast oil resources which are in the Shiite south
and the Kurdish north -- where the Kurds already enjoy broad autonomy.