Main Sunni party to join Iraqi national dialogue
6/2/2005 10:39
Iraq's leading Sunni political party which boycotted last Sunday's elections
is ready to take part in a national reconciliation dialogue called by the
interim Iraqi government, the party's leader said on Saturday.
The Iraqi
Islamic Party first fielded 275 candidates but latter announced to pull out of
the race, saying democracy is not guaranteed under poor security.
"Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawy had called us a few days ago to put
an agenda for a comprehensive dialogue with rival political, religious and
ethnic groups," Muhsen Abdul Hamid told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in his
Baghdad office.
Hamid described the national assembly to emerge from the
elections as incomplete, saying that the polls took place without wide
participation of Sunnis.
"We say it is incomplete as one third of the
Iraqis could not vote, thus the assembly lacks legitimacy," Hamid
said.
He initially denied that his party would participate in the next
government, saying "I do not think we would participate in the coming
government, because it would not be logical to withdraw from the elections first
and return to participate in the government later."
But he left the door
open on the possibility of joining the new transitional government.
"We
will study this issue, if we see it is in the interest of our country and its
unity, we would do it," he added.
He said there should have been national
dialogue in Iraq among all parties before the elections.
"However, it did
not happen and we are ready to response to any political dialogue or movement
that serves the future of Iraq," said Hamid.
He blamed other parties for
rejecting the idea of postponing the elections.
"Postponing the elections
would have given us a chance for dialogue and unity to hold comprehensive
elections and reaching common ground, but this did not happen," he
said.
He pointed out that the elections would not speed the withdrawal of
the US forces from Iraq "because the Americans know that this assembly would not
represent Iraqis comprehensively."
Xinhua
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