BAGHDAD, 14 August 2007 — Sunni politicians maintained a hard line yesterday after Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki invited key Sunni and Kurdish allies on Sunday to a crisis conference in a desperate bid to reach a compromise among Iraq’s divided factions.
With the political process stalled, the US military pressed ahead with its efforts to crackdown on the violence, launching a new offensive against extremists on both sides of the sectarian divide. Operation Phantom Strike would build on the successes during recent offensives in Baghdad and surrounding areas, the military said.
The statement singled out Sunni insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and said the Shiite extremists were being backed by Iran. The military has stepped up its rhetoric recently against Tehran, which is accused of supplying militias with arms and training to attack US forces. Iran denies the allegations.
Iraqi judicial authorities also said the third trial against former officials with Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime would begin on Aug. 21. Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan Al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” and 14 other defendants will face charges in the brutal crushing of a Shiite uprising after the 1991 Gulf War.
In Amman, Iraq’s top Sunni cleric called on the United States yesterday to cut ties with Maliki, saying his “puppet” government had failed and a US backed political process was at a dead end. “If the Americans remain with this policy and rely on the same men who proved their failure again and again then they will leave Iraq in failure,” Sheikh Harith Al-Dari told Reuters.
“The US administration should rectify its position in Iraq and stop depending on puppets ... who have proven their failure,” the leader of Iraq’s Muslim Clerics Association said in an interview in Amman. Dari said Washington had brought untold suffering on Iraq’s people during its four-year-old occupation and it should now try to foster a non-partisan government.
The cleric, who has praised Sunni insurgent groups but denies direct links, said Washington also needed to rebuild the army on non-sectarian grounds.
