Analysts play down inter-IAF splits

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Reported “merry-go-round withdrawals” from the Iraqi Accord Front, the largest bloc representing Sunni Muslims in the Iraqi Parliament, grasped the interests of journalists and analysts, some of whom thought they might undermine the front while others downplayed them considering the IAF’s alliances with other powerful blocs. In a recent crack within the IAF’s wall, lawmaker Taha al-Leheibi announced that he and the National Democratic Grouping have officially quit the front for “disrespecting the criteria, rules and mechanisms on which it was established.” “The political blocs will have to deal with the front in its current shape composed of Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) and Adnan al-Dulaimi alone,” said Leheibi. Dulaimi is the leader of the Iraq People’s Congress (IPC), one of the components of the front that came down to 29 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi parliament, according to legislator Rasheed al-Azzawi. The withdrawal is the second of its kind to be witnessed by the IAF in a matter of two weeks. The first occurred on December 25, 2008 when independent legislators and Khalaf al-Alyan’s National Dialogue Council (NDC) quit the Sunni bloc in protest to a resignation by Alyan’s fellow NDC member Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the Iraqi parliament speaker, over some “improper” words he uttered against some members of parliament during a previous session. Saman Nouh, the managing editor of al-Ahali newspaper, said the withdrawal of any party from the IAF would have its impact on the front’s power in and outside the parliament and the political process as a whole. “The shrinkage in number in the Sunni front could be an obstacle before it in the future to have some draft laws passed inside the parliament and might as well overshadow its chances in the forthcoming (local) elections,” said Nouh. Abbas al-Yasseri, a political analyst, however, believed that these withdrawals are futile, ruling out they could negatively affect Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi’s IIP, which he described as “the only institutional and organized body within the front.” He elaborated that the other powers are “notables and figures that work unilaterally and have no impression on the Sunni grassroots when compared to the IIP’s.” “This could give the IIP the lion’s share within the front,” he added. Yasseri pinpointed that the IIP has powerful strategic alliances with the Kurdistan Alliance (KA), which has 53 seats in parliament, and the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the largest bloc with 83 seats. “Both the KA and the UIA cannot stand losing the IIP in this particular stage that is marked by numerous draft laws on the parliament’s agenda. The IIP is a key element in these drafts and plays a role in forging them,” he added. Hashim Hassan, the head of the journalism department in Baghdad University, was not for the possibility that splits might become a phenomenon within the Iraqi political parties in light of the forthcoming elections. He deplored that these divisions were ones of conflict over posts and gains, not over differences about a national project. AmR (I)/SR 1