Wednesday, August 18th 2010MP says Maliki’s comments on al-Iraqiya were right
Karbala, A lawmaker from the State of Law Coalition (SLC), led by the outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Wednesday that al-Iraqiya bloc and the Sadrist movement are trying to obtain concessions from the SLC by coming closer together.
Abdul-Mahdi al-Khafaji ruled out the possibility of an agreement between al-Iraqiya eld by the former PM Ayad Allawi and the Sadrist current, headed by Muqtada Sadr.
"The meeting was as a pressure card by the two parties on the (SLC) to obtain some political gains,” referring to a recent meeting between the two sides.
He also said Maliki’s description of al-Iraqiya as a “Sunni” bloc was correct and that the prime minister did not intend to offend any particular group by that statement.
Khafaji who is a parliament member from the southern province of Karbala said, "Al-Iraqiya List evaded its talks with us and wanted to exploit Maliki's statement about them. They interpreted it in a way that they could pressure the (SLC) to make concessions.”
"Al-Iraqiya List has more than 81 members representing the respected Sunni community, and this represents a dominant majority,” added Khafaji.
Al-Iraqiya recently broke off the talks with the SLC over government formation because of Maliki’s statements that al-Iraqiya is a “Sunni” bloc.
Over the political board's visit of Sadr movement to Al- Iraqiya List, on Tuesday al-Khafaji, said, "I think that the Sadr movement and Al-Iraqiya agreement is something difficult," afterthought
Al-Iraqiya came first in Iraq’s March parliamentary election with 91 seats and Maliki’s SLC ended up a close second with 89 seats.
http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/174972/
