While in Washington last week at the invitation of the U.S. government, Iraqi Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi attributed to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki the responsibility for the decision taken by the Justice and Accountability Commission to bar 511 candidates from running in the elections because of their alleged affiliation with the banned Ba'th Party.
Shortly thereafter, the chairman of the judiciary committee of the Iraqi parliament, Baha Al-'Araji, asked the Commission for Justice and Accountability to include Al-Hashemi among those barred from participating in the election because of Al-Hashemi's statements in Washington that could be considered as promoting the outlawed Ba'th party.
A spokesman for Al-Hashemi considered the move to include him in the de-Ba'thfication as a red line beyond which he (and meaning the Sunni community) will boycott the elections.
It was reported that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are pressuring the U.S. to prevent the exclusion of Ba'thists, many of them Sunnis, from the election process.
Source: www.wasatonline.com, February 7, 2010; www.nahrainnet.net/news February 6, 2010; Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, February 8, 2010
