An Iraqi man walks past posters with an symbolic X across for the Iraqi lawmaker Dhafir al-Ani, a Sunni politician who has been barred from running in the upcoming election because of alleged ties to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party.
Associated Press
BAGHDAD — An upcoming election intended to ease Iraq’s sectarian rifts is instead dredging up old hostilities — with the White House sending Vice President Joe Biden to smooth tensions between the Shiites who hold power and the Sunnis who want a greater slice of it.
Some Sunni leaders have been outraged by the Shiite-led government’s political blacklist against perceived backers of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime, and by officials in a Shiite holy city vowing to banish any Saddam loyalists before the balloting for parliament in six weeks.
The growing quarrels have pulled Washington back into power plays between the majority Shiites and the Sunnis who seek to regain a stronger political voice in the March 7 elections, which U.S. officials hope could be a milestone for reconciliation and clear the Pentagon to accelerate troop withdrawals.
Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, said Biden will visit Iraq to press the government to suspend efforts to block suspected members of Saddam’s Baath Party from public jobs until after the voting. But Talabani told the Al-Mustaqbal satellite TV channel that it’s unclear whether Iraq would agree.
Washington sees the election as a prime chance for Sunnis to get a larger stake in running Iraq and build alliances with the Shiite power brokers. But the tone has turned combative even before the first campaign speech.
Some Sunnis claim they are becoming victims of political bullying by the Shiite-dominated leadership before the elections. The vote will determine who will govern the country in the crucial years ahead — with U.S. military forces departing and Iraq seeking to tap into its vast oil and gas reserves.
There have been no serious calls for a Sunni boycott — as took place in the first post-Saddam election for lawmakers in late 2005 — but the charges of a Shiite heavy hand could raise uncomfortable questions about the legitimacy of the vote.
