Yurt
Gold Member
I know I or someone else posted something like this a month or so ago, but this is not directly related to elections.
Two years after war dramatically changed Iraq (news - web sites)'s political landscape, the former ruling minority Sunnis are developing plans to participate in a government formed by elections they boycotted.
In a significant shift, several Sunni groups that hitherto shunned the political process met last weekend to create a unified front and set of demands that they will present to the Shiite and Kurdish leaders now hammering out a new government.
The meeting was a reversal for Sunni leaders who have supported insurgents and urged US troops to leave Iraq immediately.
The new effort, observers say, appears to be an admission that their strategy - to stop Iraq's election and denounce the formation of a new government - has failed. Bringing the former ruling class into Iraq's emerging power structure, they add, could help quell the insurgency.
....
Thorny demands
The list produced by the meeting includes demands that Sunni interests are provided for in Iraq's permanent constitution, which the national assembly is charged with writing this year.
But it also includes thornier demands :read: such as recognition that Iraqis have a right to oppose US occupation:fu2: , a schedule be developed for US forces to leave Iraq
, reversal of US de-Baathification policy in the military, and the release of all detainees for whom there is no solid evidence they committed a crime. They also want a Sunni in a top job in the country's security apparatus :baby: , particularly the Ministry of Interior :spank3: .
