A leading Iraqi Shiite cleric on Friday demanded that the US sack its envoy and accused him of siding with fellow Sunni Muslims in the divided country's growing sectarian conflict.
The call by Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yacoubi came as political leaders, urged on by the US ambassador, held their latest round of negotiations to form a government of national unity after elections in December and head off sectarian civil war.
Yacoubi said in a sermon read out at mosques for Friday prayers that Washington had underestimated the conflict between Shiites and the once dominant Sunni Arab minority.
"They are either misled by reports which lack objectivity and credibility submitted to the US by their sectarian ambassador to Iraq ... or they are denying this fact," Yacoubi said in the message, later issued as a statement.
"It [the US] should not yield to terrorist blackmail and should not be deluded or misled by spiteful sectarians. It should replace its ambassador to Iraq if it wants to protect itself from further failures," the statement said.
After the imam of Baghdad's Rahman mosque read that line, worshippers chanted "Allahu Akbar" -- God is great.
Yacoubi's call for Zalmay Khalilzad's ouster is the latest sign of growing divisions between the ruling Shiites and Washington and comes days after an Iraqi-US raid on a mosque compound killed at least 16 Shiites and outraged many Iraqis.
Yacoubi is the spiritual guide for the Fadhila party, one of the smaller but still influential components of the dominant Islamist Alliance bloc. He is not part of the senior clerical council around Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf.
Nonetheless, Shiite politicians said his comments reflected widespread disenchantment among them with Khalilzad.
"It's a very good statement," one senior official in the Alliance, not from Fadhila, said of Yacoubi's sermon.
Khalilzad has been criticized by Shiite leaders who say they resent his championing of efforts to tempt Sunnis away from armed revolt into a coalition government.
The US embassy declined to comment on the criticisms.
Meanwhile, calls emerged yesterday within the Shiite alliance for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to step aside as the bloc's nominee for another term while pressure mounted from Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians for the Shiites to pick another candidate.
One prominent Shiite politician, former national security adviser Qassim Dawoud, openly called for al-Jaafari to withdraw his name from the list.
Shiite officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said others within the Shiite alliance were open to replacing al-Jaafari. But they denied media reports that the Shiite alliance had already asked al-Jaafari to step aside.
"There is a current [within the Shiite alliance] that is calling on the prime minister to withdraw his nomination because the political process has reached a deadlock," Dawoud said. "I personally asked that he withdraw his nomination."
Opposition to al-Jaafari, a former physician who spent years in exile in Iran and Britain, has bogged down talks among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians over formation of a new government.
Sunni and Kurdish politicians have urged the Shiites to replace al-Jaafari, claiming his government had been ineffective in curbing tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Al-Jaafari won the nomination by one vote in a caucus of Shiite lawmakers last month.
Al-Jaafari edged out Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi because of support from radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The prospect of a prime minister politically beholden to the vehemently anti-US al-Sadr has alarmed both Iraqi and US officials.
Under the constitution, the nominee of the biggest bloc in parliament gets first crack at the prime ministership, subject to parliamentary approval. The Shiites control 130 seats in the 275-member parliament.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not