BAGHDAD, 1 January 2005 — A representative of the Shiite party expected to take a commanding lead in next month’s landmark elections in Iraq called on the country’s Sunni minority to reverse their widespread boycott of the polls, saying they had caved in to threats from terror leader Osama Bin Laden.
“We hope that our brothers in the Islamic Party and other Sunni parties will study the matter with the greatest of seriousness, because it is not good to tie the destiny of the nation to a person named Bin Laden or a person of mythology named Al-Zarqawi,” said Sadruddin Al-Qubbani.
On Monday, an audiotape attributed to Al-Qaeda chief Bin Laden and aired by Al-Jazeera television called on Iraqis to boycott the Jan. 30 elections, saying anyone who took part was an “infidel.”
But Qubbani asked, “What does it mean, your having submitted so quickly in the face of a terrorist?”
In the same tape, Bin Laden recognized Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Iraq’s most-wanted man whose group has claimed some of the deadliest attacks, as leader of Al-Qaeda in the war-torn country.
Before the Bin Laden tape was broadcast, the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni community’s main political movement, announced on Monday it would boycott the elections.
Meanwhile, plans were unveiled here to deploy 100,000 Iraqi police and soldiers to stave off a bloodbath on election day, as US President George W. Bush said polls would go on as scheduled on Jan. 30.
