Hakim’s body to arrive in Baghdad today – SIIC source

NAJAF / IraqiNews.com: The body of Shiite leader Abdulaziz al-Hakim will be carried from Iran to Baghdad directly without stopping in Basra province and then will be carried on Friday morning to the Green Zone to hold the official funerary ceremonies, said a media source from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council on Thursday. “After the popular funerary ceremonies in the Iranian city of Qom, Sayyid Hakim’s body will be carried today (Aug. 27) from Tehran Airport aboard a private plane to the Baghdad Airport,” Abdullatif al-Amidi told Iraqi News. “Later on the body will be carried from the Green Zone’s al-Kadhemiya to the city of Najaf for burial next to the body of his brother Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim,” who was assassinated in August 2003 in a deadly blast in Najaf, said Amidi. Hakim passed away after physicians failed to treat a recent serious deterioration in his health. The SIIC’s al-Furat channel had announced Hakim’s death. Hakim is the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which comprises major Shiite parties. The bloc is the largest in the Iraqi parliament after it won the 2005 elections with 128 out of a total 275 seats. He also spearheaded the SIIC after the assassination of his brother Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim in August 2003. A powerful and one of the most prominent Shiite political figures in Iraq, Hakim was in charge of the political affairs of the SIIC’s precursor Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He also led the SCIRI delegation to Washington during the meetings held by the Iraqi opposition groups to discuss the means to unseat the Baath regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Hakim returned to Iraq nearly one month after the Baath regime was deposed. He became a member of the U.S.-installed Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in December 2003. The SIIC has been calling for adopting a federal system for Iraq, that is the establishment of federal provinces in Iraq to help run the country and accelerate its development process. This vision brought the SIIC closer to the Kurds who had struck an alliance with it. The SIIC has played a key role in the country’s political process and retained some important portfolios in the government, in addition to the vice president post, after the 2005 elections. AmR (S) 1