http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq3jan03,0,6693025.story?track=tottextFrom the Los Angeles Times
THE WORLD
Sunnis Bargain for Iraq Role as Allawi Fades
Ascendant Shiites and Kurds hint that a deal to form a new governing coalition may exclude the U.S.-favored secular politician.
By Borzou Daragahi
Times Staff Writer
January 3, 2006
BAGHDAD — The victors in last month's parliamentary election indicated Monday that they were prepared to cut a secular politician backed by Washington out of the new government in favor of Iraq's main Sunni Arab slate.
The pro-Western politician, former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, did poorly in the Dec. 15 balloting despite spending heavily on a sleek television campaign.
"Allawi is a red line," said Baha Araji, a member of the leading Shiite Muslim political bloc and a loyalist of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr.
Araji and other negotiators from the main Shiite slate spent much of Monday night engaged in talks with the National Accordance Front, a Sunni Muslim Arab coalition led by Islamists and clerics. The president of Iraq's northern Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, embraced Sunni Arab leaders there.
The emerging political alliance lumps together Shiites, Kurds and Islamist Sunni Arabs — and excludes secular Iraqis, hard-core Sunni Arab nationalists and those sympathetic to the Baath Party of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein.<snip>
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The Shiites have set up a seven-member steering committee to enforce discipline across their unwieldy coalition. They have also created ground rules for joining the new government, including commitments to denounce political violence, uphold the constitution ratified Oct. 15 and support the removal of former Baath Party members from public life.
U.S. officials had hoped the political process would stem the insurgency, but the new Shiite rules appear likely to alienate the Sunnis and Iraqi nationalists who drive the insurgency.
Shiites, especially those loyal to Sadr, also insist that Allawi be barred from the coalition. The onetime CIA protege and American favorite, a secular Shiite who was a Baath Party member long ago, has emerged as the hope of the Iraqi intelligentsia as well as the man with whom U.S. officials are most comfortable.
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