BAGHDAD - Parliamentary blocs representing Sunnis, Shias and independents on Sunday signed on to a common platform stressing the need for national unity and central control over oil reserves. The blocs, should they come together as is expected as a new political alliance, would be a dominant force in the 275-member parliament, with a total of more than 100 seats.
Among those who signed the statement of common understanding are the political wing of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, the secular Iraqi National List of former prime minister Iyad Allawi and the Sunni leader Salah Al MutlakÂ’s National Dialogue Front, a joint statement said.
The statement said the pact was signed ‘for the sake of the higher national interest, to maintain a united Iraq free of sectarian divisions ... and to support national reconciliation.’
The parties demanded that oil and gas ‘and other natural resources should remain Iraqi treasures’ and not be allowed to be signed away by regional powers. The statement expressed ‘deep concern at individual acts without reference to central government, such as the signing of contracts with foreign companies’ —- a reference to Iraq’s oil-rich autonomous Kurdish region, which has signed 15 crude oil contracts with 20 foreign concerns. |