Word: ayatollahs
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...Even in Iraq, where democratic elections became possible only because the U.S. invasion had ousted Saddam Hussein, the clear winner at the polls was the Shiite Islamist-led coalition assembled by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The overtly pro-U.S. list of interim prime minister Iyad Allawi polled only 14 percent of the vote. It is to the Bush administration?s credit that it has repeatedly insisted it will accept the choices of the Iraqi voters, even when those obviously conflict with U.S. preferences. Such flexibility will be indispensable if the Arab democracy project is to be much more than...
...frontrunner for the key position of Prime Minister is currently Dr. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leader of the Shiite Islamist Dawa party. Jaafari is the favorite to win the nomination of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance list, assembled under the auspices of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. His key rival for the job, economist Adel Abdel Mahdi of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), agreed to take himself out of the running. In exchange for backing the Dawa man, SCIRI will likely get a candidate of its own choosing into one of two vice presidencies, and also...
...Allawi's best bet would be to draw the Kurds into his own bloc. But the Kurds, secular and seperatist, they are hardly natural allies for the moderate Islamist-nationalist UIA list assembled under the auspices of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Still, they may see the Sistani list as a more viable government, if they can strike a deal that gives the Shiites the power they seek in Baghdad in exchange for de facto Kurdish independence in the northern provinces - largely at the expense of Sunni Arabs and ethnic Turkmen in Kirkuk and other contested areas. Ultimately, however, the Kurds...
...coalition and the pro-U.S. secular groups headed by Allawi. The rules of the game give Allawi openings to maneuver for power even if his opponents win a clear majority of the vote and the seats in the National Assembly. But Shiite leaders - none more so than Grand Ayatollah Sistani himself - have long questioned some of the provisions of Bremer's transitional constitution, the TAL, and the right of Americans to set the rules for Iraqi democracy. Sistani aide Ahmad al-Safi reiterated this week in an interview with al-Diyar television that many Shiites believe...
...getting the U.S. out is one point of consensus between the radical Sunni Arab insurgents and the moderate Shiite Arab Islamists that look set to emerge with the largest share of Sunday?s vote, they also share a common hostility to Kurdish secessionism. Grand Ayatollah Sistani has made no secret of his hostility to the provisions of the Transitional Administrative Law - the interim constitution crafted under U.S. direction - that gives the Kurds an effective veto over a new constitution. The Kurd-Arab distinction may yet prove as powerful a destabilizing factor as the Sunni-Shiite one in the months ahead...