Powerful Iraqi Shiite leader heads to US

Powerful Iraqi Shiite leader heads to US

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Powerful Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim left for a visit to the United States to discuss the latest security and political developments in Iraq, his party said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hakim heads the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), the party leading the Shiite alliance ruling Baghdad. He went with several of his aides on an "official invitation from the American administration," SIIC said.

Without elaborating, SIIC said Hakim will discuss the latest developments in Iraq with senior US officials.

SIIC has 30 lawmakers in Iraq's 275-member parliament and has close links with Iran from where it operated before returning to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

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Iraq Shi'ite party urges deal on federalism

Reuters - Sunday, November 25

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A powerful Shi'ite political party on Sunday urged Iraq's other blocs to reach agreement on forming federal regions, saying failure to do so would lead to "dangerous" consequences for the country.

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Parliament passed a law in late 2006 allowing for federal regions to be established, but Shi'ite and Sunni leaders agreed at the time to put off implementation for at least 18 months given the sensitivity of the issue.

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Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam, fear a federal Iraq would hand northern and southern oilfields to ethnic Kurds and Shi'ites respectively, and would leave them trapped in a poor, desert rump state in central and western Iraq.

The influential bloc loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has also rejected the concept of federalism, underscoring the deep rivalry between Iraq's two biggest Shi'ite entities.

The two Shi'ite factions are vying for control of the towns and cities in Iraq's predominantly Shi'ite south.

The biggest supporter of SIIC's federalism push is Iraq's Kurds, who already enjoy a large measure of autonomy in the north of the country.

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