Maliki says Sunnis to join alliance but Sunni official denies

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). The largest Sunni bloc recently returned to parliament after Mahmud Mashhadani was reinstated as speaker, but has withdrawn its cabinet ministers from Maliki's cabinet. Sadr's parliamentary bloc also returned recently to the legislature following a protest of the most recent bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, but also withdrew from the cabinet in April. Maliki recently announced a new coalition involving al-Hakim and Talabani, but noticeably lacking Sunnis. Not pictured is former Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose smaller Sunni bloc is boycotting cabinet meetings and has announced it will withdraw from government.

Iraq's prime minister said on Sunday the country's biggest Sunni Arab political party had agreed to join a new alliance with Shi'ites and Kurds to end political paralysis, but a top official of the party denied it.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, under pressure from the United States to show progress towards national reconciliation, said the Iraqi Islamic Party of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi would join the alliance of moderate Shi'ite and Kurdish parties.

The party has rebuffed overtures by the four leading parties in Maliki's government of national unity to join them, saying such alliances were not the answer to Iraq's political crisis....

"Today there will be a joint statement, not from only the four parties but also the Islamic Party. There will be five parties, not four. This final statement will include a summary of all points of agreement," Maliki told a news conference.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

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