Kurds to join Shi'a alliance
source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20100415162422350C662899
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By Waleed Ibrahim
Iraq's president said minority Kurds can be expected to join the country's main Shi'a blocs if they unite to form the next government following inconclusive elections in March.
Kurdish support would give the Shi'a parties the muscle needed to sideline former premier Iyad Allawi, whose cross-sectarian alliance won the most seats in the March 7 vote after gaining the broad backing of Iraq's Sunni minority.
That could fuel Sunni anger at a time when the slaughter between majority Shi'a and Sunnis who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein has subsided but attacks by Sunni Islamist insurgents continue to threaten Iraq's fragile security.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said the Kurdistan list consisting of his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Kurdish President Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, stood ready to back a tie-up between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA).
Talabani made his comments after a meeting on Wednesday night with former Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose faction is part of the INA.
"As everyone knows, we are natural allies," Talabani told reporters, recalling Kurdish-Shi'a solidarity when the two communities were oppressed under toppled Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein.
"In addition, we will support whichever candidate (for prime minister) our Shi'a brothers propose."
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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw201004151624...
Iraq's president said minority Kurds can be expected to join the country's main Shi'a blocs if they unite to form the next government following inconclusive elections in March.
Kurdish support would give the Shi'a parties the muscle needed to sideline former premier Iyad Allawi, whose cross-sectarian alliance won the most seats in the March 7 vote after gaining the broad backing of Iraq's Sunni minority.
That could fuel Sunni anger at a time when the slaughter between majority Shi'a and Sunnis who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein has subsided but attacks by Sunni Islamist insurgents continue to threaten Iraq's fragile security.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said the Kurdistan list consisting of his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Kurdish President Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, stood ready to back a tie-up between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA).
Talabani made his comments after a meeting on Wednesday night with former Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose faction is part of the INA.
"As everyone knows, we are natural allies," Talabani told reporters, recalling Kurdish-Shi'a solidarity when the two communities were oppressed under toppled Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein.
"In addition, we will support whichever candidate (for prime minister) our Shi'a brothers propose."
More-
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw201004151624...
