Supporters of former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, pictured in the poster, celebrate in Baghdad on Saturday.3/27/2010
Allawi win could curb Iran’s influence
CAIRO — The surprisingly strong election showing by a secular, nationalist coalition in Iraq has provided a sudden opening for the mostly Sunni Arab world to curtail Iranian influence in Iraq, something that has been a source of serious alarm for the United States and its Arab allies since 2003.
The banner headline in Asharq al-Awsat, an influential newspaper in Saudi Arabia, said it all — "The Awakening of Moderation in Iraq" — offering an immediate endorsement of Iraq's top vote-getter by the regional Sunni Arab powerhouse.
The Iraqiya coalition led by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who has campaigned for better ties with the Arab world and keeping neighboring Iran at a distance, won 91 of the new legislature's 325 seats, edging Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's mainly Shiite bloc by only two seats. Allawi was prime minister in 2004-05.
The narrow victory foreshadowed possibly months of negotiations over the formation of a new government, but Allawi's numerical victory is triumph enough for the mostly Sunni Arab regimes that have been wary of Shiite-dominated Iraqi governments since the 2003 U.S. invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Sunni Arab governments have for years kept their distance from the postwar governments, not sending full ambassadors, first because of the U.S. occupation, then because of the precarious security and more recently because of their anger over perceived Iranian influence. They recently have begun warming toward Iraq and Allawi's ascension would likely tip the balance.
The United States has long maintained that Iran was fomenting violence in Iraq. It charges that Tehran provides Shiite militiamen with money, weapons and training and blames the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq on a particularly effective brand of roadside bomb it says is supplied by Iran.
U.S. officials also claimed the banning by a Shiite-led vetting body of hundreds of candidates from running in the March 7 election for their alleged ties to the Saddam regime was inspired by Iran. Many of those blacklisted were Sunni Arabs. Iran denies the allegations.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36065638/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/
Allawi win could curb Iran’s influence
CAIRO — The surprisingly strong election showing by a secular, nationalist coalition in Iraq has provided a sudden opening for the mostly Sunni Arab world to curtail Iranian influence in Iraq, something that has been a source of serious alarm for the United States and its Arab allies since 2003.
The banner headline in Asharq al-Awsat, an influential newspaper in Saudi Arabia, said it all — "The Awakening of Moderation in Iraq" — offering an immediate endorsement of Iraq's top vote-getter by the regional Sunni Arab powerhouse.
The Iraqiya coalition led by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who has campaigned for better ties with the Arab world and keeping neighboring Iran at a distance, won 91 of the new legislature's 325 seats, edging Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's mainly Shiite bloc by only two seats. Allawi was prime minister in 2004-05.
The narrow victory foreshadowed possibly months of negotiations over the formation of a new government, but Allawi's numerical victory is triumph enough for the mostly Sunni Arab regimes that have been wary of Shiite-dominated Iraqi governments since the 2003 U.S. invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Sunni Arab governments have for years kept their distance from the postwar governments, not sending full ambassadors, first because of the U.S. occupation, then because of the precarious security and more recently because of their anger over perceived Iranian influence. They recently have begun warming toward Iraq and Allawi's ascension would likely tip the balance.
The United States has long maintained that Iran was fomenting violence in Iraq. It charges that Tehran provides Shiite militiamen with money, weapons and training and blames the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq on a particularly effective brand of roadside bomb it says is supplied by Iran.
U.S. officials also claimed the banning by a Shiite-led vetting body of hundreds of candidates from running in the March 7 election for their alleged ties to the Saddam regime was inspired by Iran. Many of those blacklisted were Sunni Arabs. Iran denies the allegations.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36065638/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/
