Iraqi Government Dismisses Sunni Demands

[Scurrilous]

Source: Washington Post

<snip>

"The Shiite-led Iraqi government issued a sharp response Friday to a Sunni political bloc that is threatening to pull out of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's administration, saying the group's "threatening, pressuring and blackmail" cannot impede Iraq's progress.

In a four-page written statement, Maliki spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh dismissed each of 11 demands made by the Accordance Front, Iraq's largest Sunni political group. Dabbagh accused the Accordance Front of working for its own political gains rather than for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

"The threatening, pressuring and blackmail is useless, and delaying the work of the government, the Council of Representatives and the political process will not bring Iraq back to the time of dictatorship and slavery," Dabbagh wrote.

The Accordance Front announced Wednesday that its six ministers in Maliki's cabinet will quit the government permanently unless the prime minister makes significant progress on its list of demands by next week. The group is seeking a greater role in security matters, the removal of militia members from Iraqi security forces and the release of thousands of detainees its members believe are unjustly imprisoned."





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072701282.html

---

Related thread:

Sunnis suspends Iraqi gov't membership

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2928925

[Scurrilous]

1. Iraqi government in deepest crisis

<snip>

"Iraq is in the throes of its worst political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the new democratic system, based on national consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups, appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say several politicians and analysts.

This has brought paralysis to governmental institutions and has left parliament unable to make headway on 18 benchmarks Washington is using to measure progress in Iraq, including legislation on oil revenue sharing and reforming security forces.

And the disconnect between Baghdad and Washington over the urgency for solutions is growing. The Iraqi parliament is set for an August vacation as the Bush administration faces pressure to show progress in time for a September report to Congress.

At the moment, Iraqi politicians are simply trying to keep the government from disintegrating. On Friday, top Iraqi officials were set to convene in the Kurdish north for a crisis summit, in the hopes that talks held outside of Baghdad's politically poisonous atmosphere may bring some resolution to the current political standstill. President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the president of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, were set to meet at the Salaheddin summer resort at the end of a difficult week."

more

[ClintonTyree]

2. ......"cannot impede Iraq's progress".

:wtf: There's been progress? It's quite apparent that the Iraqi government has been modeled after the Bush White House; always on vacation and if there is actually anything done, it's sure to be against the best interests of the Iraqi people.

Looks like the Iraqis are in for another round of purple fingers soon.

Also, this gives Bush yet another excuse to keep our troops there ad infinitum. "Geez, those danged Iraqis just can't seem to get a handle on this democracy stuff, Karl. We're 'gonna have to keep our troops there until they have a stable government. Send 'em some more of those purple ink pads and make them do it again, only better this time, but I get the final say if it's a 'legitimate' government or not, be sure to tell them that too, Karl. Better order some more of them 'no-bid contract' forms for Halliburton too, we're runnin' out. How much more oil 'ya think they got left, Karl"? :sarcasm:

[Supersedeas]

3. More stories directly relevant to our occupation in Iraq which will get little to zero TV

news coverage -- not back to Lohan.

[Eugene]

4. Those Sunnis are so unreasonable.

Militias out of the security forces?
Freeing detainees held without charge?
A commitment to human rights?

Next thing you know, they'll want to hold
the country to some silly benchmarks.
They're as pushy as the Americans!

/sarcasm