Iraq's Arab Sunnis reaching out to Kurds, Turkmen?
Alan Sipress has an important piece in today's WaPo about Sunni leaders in Iraq organizing a pan-Sunni coordinating/advisory council (shura council).
If the Shura Council becomes a fixture in its present form-- still not known--then it could substantially affect the future balance in the country.
According to Sipress,
- The shura council includes equal representation from each of the three main currents within the Sunni Muslim community: the politically oriented Muslim Brotherhood, the religious puritans of the Salafi movement and the adherents of the mystical Sufi tradition. Within each group, half the seats are allocated for ethnic Arabs and half are divided between ethnic Kurds and Turkmen. Dozens of other council members are drawn from professionals, intellectuals, tribal leaders and other civic groups.
The council does not plan to exclude former members of Hussein's government unless they were involved in criminal activities, [said Mohammed Ahmed Rashid, an activist with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which is involved in forming the council.]
- The council... is demanding that the next Iraqi government be selected by direct election rather than through local caucuses, as U.S. officials prefer.
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