By NNN-KUNA
Baghdad : Iraqi Vice President Tareq Hashemi has met senior Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani in the latter’s office in Najaf and discussed the freshly-announced Iraqi National Compact.
The vice president’s media spokesman Ali Al-Barrak told KUNA Hashemi, also the Islamic Iraqi Party secretary-general, headed to Najaf Thursday to hold meetings and discussions with Al-Sistani and other religious figures relating to the national compact.
The Iraqi National Compact is the latest effort at reconciliation and was launched Wednesday by the Islamic Iraqi Party. This is Hashemi’s first visit to Najaf since taking office.
The compact is of 25 articles and stresses all have to put national Iraqi identity before ethnic, sectarian or partisan affiliation. It also stresses coexistence and harmony as essential to the nation’s prosperity.
“No Iraqi shall be attacked, killed or otherwise abused due to his faith, religion, or ethnic identity,” Al-Hashemi stated.
The official also said the compact was not a set of new demands presented as condition for the accord bloc’s return to the cabinet. “The Iraqi issue is an Iraqi affair to be weighted and addressed by the Iraqis themselves in full independence and without any external interference in this internal affair,” the Iraqi vice president remarked.