Sat, Aug 16, 2014 page1

• Top Iraqi cleric backs new PM, calls for unity

  • Reuters, BAGHDAD
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  Iraq’s most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, yesterday threw his weight behind the new prime minister, calling for national unity to contain sectarian bloodshed and an offensive by Islamic State militants that threatens Baghdad.

  Speaking after Nouri al-Maliki finally stepped down as prime minister under heavy pressure from allies at home and abroad, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiite majority said the handover to al-Maliki’s party colleague, Haider al-Abadi, offered a rare opportunity to resolve political and security crises.

  Iraq has been plunged into its worst violence since the peak of a sectarian civil war in 2006 to 2007, with Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, overrunning large parts of the west and north, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives and threatening the ethnic Kurds in their autonomous province.

  

  A handout photo made available by the Iraqi prime minister’s office on Thursday shows outgoing prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, alongside his designated successor, Haider al-Abadi, center left, delivering a speech in which he announced he was stepping down.

  Photo: AFP

  Al-Sistani told the country’s feuding politicians to live up to their “historic responsibility” by cooperating with al-Abadi as he tries to form a new government and overcome divisions among the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities that deepened as al-Maliki pursued what critics saw as a sectarian Shiite agenda.

  Al-Abadi himself, in comments online, urged his countrymen to unite and cautioned that the road ahead would be tough.

  Al-Sistani, a reclusive octogenarian whose authority few Iraqi politicians would dare openly challenge, also had pointed comments for the military.

  “We stress the necessity that the Iraqi flag is the banner they hoist over their troops and units, and avoid using any pictures or other symbols,” al-Sistani said, in a call for the armed forces to set aside sectarian differences.

  Al-Maliki was blamed for blurring lines between the army and Shiite militias.

  Al-Maliki ended eight years in power that began under US occupation and endorsed al-Abadi, a member of his Shiite Islamic Dawa party, in a televised speech late on Thursday, during which he stood next to his successor, surrounded by other leaders.

  Al-Maliki’s critics at home and abroad had accused him of marginalizing the Sunni Muslim minority, which dominated Iraq until a US-led invasion deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003. This, they said, had encouraged disaffected Sunnis to back the jihadist fighters, who have ordered religious minorities to convert to their brand of Islam or die.

  The appointment of al-Abadi, who has a reputation as a less confrontational figure, had drawn widespread support within Iraq, but also from the US and regional Shiite power Iran — two countries which have been at odds for decades.

  Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers were holding an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the region’s response to major crises, including the conflict in Iraq.

  In London, the British government said it would consider “positively” any request for arms from the Kurds to help them battle the militants.

  Several European governments, including France, Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, have said they will send arms to the Kurds or are considering doing so.
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