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Iraqi parliament to meet soon amid rising violence
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-05 11:11
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announced that parliament will soon hold its
first session since December elections in a bid to form a unity government and
foil extremist efforts to trigger a civil war.
Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani announced that parliament will soon hold its first session
since December elections in a bid to form a government of national unity
and foil efforts by extremists to trigger a civil war.
[AFP] | His comments followed a meeting with the
head of regional US Central Command, General John Abizaid, to discuss security
after 10 days of sectarian bloodshed that have seen hundreds killed.
"A government of national unity can help improve security and stability in
Iraq," Talabani told a news conference.
He appealed to Sunni rebels not linked to Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi to lay down their arms and stop fighting Iraqi and coalition forces.
"We call on all the sons of Iraq not linked to Zarqawi to understand the
danger posed by communal violence. It is in the interest of Sunni Arabs to put
an end to their military operations," Talabani said.
Last month's bombing of a revered Shiite shrine -- an attack attributed to
Zarqawi -- set off the worst round of violence between majority Shiites and
minority Sunnis since the 2003 US-led invasion.
"It's very clear that we cannot let the terrorists led by Zarqawi get in the
middle of the peace that Iraq must have to develop," Abizaid told reporters.
"We must move together against the terrorists before they break the general
peace.... The government of national unity must form to bring the country
together."
Talabani said that the hardliners, including Zarqawi, "want to set
sectarianism alight in the country and further divide Sunnis and Shiites."
He acknowledged that the rising violence had helped slow the formation of
national unity government more than two months after parliamentary elections.
The three-man presidency will summon MPs Sunday to an inaugural session
sometime late next week to kickstart the process of forming the government, he
said.
But the minority Sunnis and Kurds remain at odds with the majority Shiites
over their determination to retain outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari in
office.
The main Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, fell short of an absolute
majority in parliament and needs the support of other parties.
In violence on the ground, at least seven people were killed and 19 wounded
in a mortar attack near a Baghdad market.
Three people were wounded, including two police commandos, when a roadside
bomb exploded near a patrol in the south Baghdad district of Dura. Two more
people were hurt when another bomb hit a trailer truck in south Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh said the government was
putting in place a new plan to disband militias, but stressed they did not pose
a security threat.
The Sunni Arab minority has accused Shiite-based militias of orchestrating
some of the recent violence against their community, triggered by the bombing of
the Shiite shrine.
"I have sent a letter to the militias... asking them to implement the order
to disband," the minister told a news conference.
"There's no reason to be afraid of the militias," Solagh added.
A plan was passed to dissolve militias in June 2004, but most have remained
in place.
Militias include the Mehdi Army of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr, which
led two uprisings against coalition troops in 2004, and the Badr Brigade, the
formerly Iran-based military wing of a mainstream Shiite religious party -- the
Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
US ground forces commander General George Casey said Friday that Shiite
militias were responsible for reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques. But their
takeover of Sunni mosques were fleeting and in most cases they yielded control
when Iraqi security forces showed up, he said.
The crisis appeared to have passed for now, said Casey who nevertheless
warned that another major attack on a religious site would have a significant
impact.
"Anything can happen," Casey said when asked about the threat of civil war in
a video press conference from his headquarters in Iraq.
But he said "the chances of that are not good" as long as US forces are on
the ground working with the Iraqi security forces, and as long as Iraqis are
committed to forming a government of national unity.
Casey said he would take the sectarian bloodletting into consideration when
he decides this spring whether to recommend further cuts in the 133,000-strong
US deployment.
The US military had hoped to draw down the size of the US force to about
100,000 by the end of the year as the Iraqi security forces gain in strength and
experience and take over responsibility for security
operations.
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