In policy shift, Iran urges Iraq to include Sunnis in government

BAGHDAD — Iran, which has acted as a major power broker in Iraqi politics, called Saturday for Iraqi leaders to include Sunnis in the long-overdue new government, and said Shiites would have to form an alliance with them for that to happen.

It was a major shift in Iran's stance toward Iraq because in the past Iran, Iraq's huge Shiite neighbor, has always advocated a Shiite-dominated governing alliance. It had worked hard to influence that result before the elections.

In announcing the new policy, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Iraq, suggested at a Baghdad news conference that any successful coalition would have to include former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya alliance, which won a narrow plurality of the parliamentary seats in the March 7 elections, thanks to votes from Sunnis and secular Iraqis.

Qomi said Iraqiya had asked to visit Iran for political consultations and his government had responded, in his words, "Our doors are open."

Allawi, Iraqiya's leader, had previously been critical of his major opponents for going to Iran after the elections, seeking Iran's help in negotiating a governing alliance.

Qomi stopped short of calling for the formation of a national unity government — which is what Iraq had for its last government — but said any coalition had to be "comprehensive" and had to include Sunnis.

He added that Iraqiya had clearly become the voice representing the Sunnis, and while he did not explicitly say so, he was apparently suggesting Iraqiya should be brought into an alliance with one of the Shiite groupings.

"What we believe is that the government should represent all parties and all groups in Iraq," he said, "and no one group can construct the government alone."

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, asked Saturday about Qomi's remarks, said, "My suggestion to him would be to leave that up to the Iraqis."

It was not clear what prompted Iran's shift — or why it occurred now. But, with negotiations deadlocked a month after the vote, it seemed a pragmatic recognition of Allawi's success and a way to achieve some distance from the current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, whose relations with Iran have not always been smooth.

Al-Maliki's State of Law alliance, which won 89 seats, and the Iraqi National Alliance, which won 70 seats, both draw most of their support from religious-based Shiite parties. But even together, they do not have quite enough votes for a majority in parliament, which would require support from the Kurdish bloc.

Allawi's Iraqiya alliance won 91 seats, and would need support from the Kurds and one of the Shiite alliances.

Al-Maliki has been demanding a recount of the results of the March 7 poll and accusing Iraqiya of winning the election by cheating, a charge that international monitors, the United Nations and Iraq's independent elections commission all reject.

Allawi and al-Maliki have ruled out any coalition with one another, although al-Maliki has made efforts to woo away some of the Sunni parties in Allawi's Iraqiya alliance, so far without success.