Powerful Shiite and Sunni leaders meet in Iraq
RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) — Influential Shiite cleric Ammar Hakim held talks in Ramadi on Sunday with a powerful Sunni tribal sheikh, which observers said were highly symbolic for reconciliation in war-torn Iraq.
The meeting between Hakim, a leading figure of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), and Sheikh Ahmed Abu Reesha, leader of a Sunni coalition in western Anbar province formed to fight Al-Qaeda, was tightly guarded by Iraqi troops and police and the US military.
Sheikh Ahmed took over as head of the Anbar Awakening Council when his brother Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha was killed by a bomb near his home in Ramadi, capital of Anbar, on September 13.
Sunday's visit was the first by a leader of the SIIC to the Sunni stronghold in volatile Anbar province, long a bastion of resistance to the US-led invasion and opposition to the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.
Hakim was accompanied to Ramadi by Hadi al-Amri, the head of the Badr Brigade, SIIC's powerful militia which is accused of violence against the country's Sunni Arabs.
Tribal chiefs at the meeting hailed the visit, calling it important for reconciliation in a country riven with bitter sectarian divides that have led to the killings of thousands of Iraqis.
Sheikh Ahmed asked Hakim to help quell sectarian violence and vowed to continue the work against Al-Qaeda started by his brother.
Hakim hailed Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha as a "real national hero."
"Iraqi soil is for everybody, the Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis," said Hakim, son and heir-apparent of ailing SIIC leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.
On Saturday, Ammar Hakim called for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and rejected the possibility of permanent foreign military bases there.
He also broached the issue of federalism, calling the division of the country "an Iraqi interest, wish and decision.
"I call on this holy day for the people of my country to form (self-governing) regions, starting with the region south of Baghdad," Hakim said in an Eid al-Fitr sermon from the SIIC headquarters in Baghdad.
The principle of federalism is enshrined in Iraq's constitution. But Sunni Arabs, who form around 20 percent of the population and are largely located in central, resource-poor parts of the country, have been less enthusiastic about such a plan, fearing it would deprive them of oil wealth.
