Watser?
08-07-2007, 08:45 PM
I just read this on Juan Cole's Informed Comment (http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/122-dead-in-civil-war-violence-collapse.html), which he took from the Arabic newspaper Al Hayat (Life): Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Ibrahim Jaafari, the former prime minister of Iraq and former head of the Islamic Call [al-Da`wa] Party is planning to begin a new party, the National Reform Assembly as a way of returning to power as prime minister sometime during the next three months. He is also seeking a constitutional change to make Iraq a combination presidential-parliamentary regime (as with France) instead of a straight parliamentary government (as with the UK).
The new party plans to contest the forthcoming provincial elections as a single party, not as part of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance. Jaafari is attempting to make it into a cross-sectarian, cross-ethnic coalition, that will encompass the Sadr Movement, the Iraqi Islamic Party (Sunni), the National Congress (secular), two wings of the Da`wa Party, the Shiite Turkmens, the Kurdistan Movement (Sunni), the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila), the Democratic National Movement (Sunni), the secular Turkmen, as well as Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish tribes and some prominent secularist personalities. The cross-sectarian character of the new party is turning heads in Iraq, where an expectation had grown up that parties and coalitions are formed within sects and ethnicities. It is rumored that neighboring countries approve of the new party, but it is not yet known how Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of the Shiites, will respond.
This would be a very good initiative if he can pull it off.
The new party plans to contest the forthcoming provincial elections as a single party, not as part of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance. Jaafari is attempting to make it into a cross-sectarian, cross-ethnic coalition, that will encompass the Sadr Movement, the Iraqi Islamic Party (Sunni), the National Congress (secular), two wings of the Da`wa Party, the Shiite Turkmens, the Kurdistan Movement (Sunni), the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila), the Democratic National Movement (Sunni), the secular Turkmen, as well as Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish tribes and some prominent secularist personalities. The cross-sectarian character of the new party is turning heads in Iraq, where an expectation had grown up that parties and coalitions are formed within sects and ethnicities. It is rumored that neighboring countries approve of the new party, but it is not yet known how Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of the Shiites, will respond.
This would be a very good initiative if he can pull it off.