Hakim says he backs Maliki

Above: The major players -- Nuri al-Maliki (Prime Minister, Shiite), Tariq al-Hashemi (one of two Vice Presidents, Sunni), Moqtada al-Sadr ('fiery' anti-American cleric, Shiite), Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim (head of the largest Shiite coalition), Jalal Talabani (President of Iraq, Kurd, Qadiri Sufi sect of Sunnism), and Massoud Barzani (President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Naqshbandi Sufi sect of Sunnisim). Six Sadrist cabinet ministers quit Maliki's cabinet in April over his refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and Sadr's parliamentary bloc is boycotting the legislature in protest of the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra last month. This week the U.S. military said that Sadr has gone back to Iran, which Sadr's aides are denying. The main Sunni Arab bloc is also boycotting cabinet and parliament meetings over what it says is unfair treatment of its members.

The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political party said he will stand by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and urged Sunnis not to abandon the political process, promising serious efforts to solve any problem angering them.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's written comments were received by the Associated Press on Thursday in response to questions sent to him last week. The leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq is in Iran for cancer treatment.

Al-Maliki's coalition has been weakened by a Sunni Arab boycott and wrangling over political benchmarks that the U.S. is pushing the prime minister to pass. Some Sunni politicians have called for removing al-Maliki calling him biased toward his fellow Shiites.

The prime minister and his aides have said repeatedly in recent weeks that they plan a government reshuffle to streamline it -by uniting "moderate" parties and reducing the size of the Cabinet -in order to push through loggerjammed legislation.

Al-Hakim said "work is going on to back the prime minister and to strengthen the government and stand by its side ... and work so that the government be more powerful than it is today."

Read the rest at Zawya

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