By DPA
Washington : Former interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi has confirmed that a top Washington lobbying firm is working to help him forge a non-sectarian coalition that would replace Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a newspaper report said Monday.
Allawi confirmed in CNN’s Late Edition Sunday talk show that the firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers was being paid $300,000 over six months “to help us advocate our views, the views of the nationalistic Iraqis, the non-sectarian Iraqis”, according to the Washington Post.
The revelation came after weeks of negotiations in Baghdad, where the strongest Sunni faction in parliament, the Iraq Consensus Front (ICF), Sunday agreed to support al-Maliki’s Shia and Kurdish coalition that currently dominates the Iraqi government.
The move complies with increasing pressure from the White House for the prime minister to bring together warring parties.
Allawi’s non-sectarian Iraqi National List (INL) withdrew from al-Maliki’s government Friday, and did not join the agreement announced Sunday in Baghdad. Allawi declined to say who was paying for the lobbyist’ services.
Allawi served as interim prime minister from June 2004 until after the elections in 2005.
The hiring of the lobbyist firm was first reported by iraqslogger.com, the Post reported.
In Baghdad Sunday, the two Shiite and two Kurdish parties, along with the Sunni groups, described the agreement on a common strategy as a huge breakthrough “that opens the way for the Sunnis to return to the government”.
The Sunnis, who represent a minority population that lost its upper hand with the fall of Saddam Hussein, have charged that al-Maliki’s government has only clamped down on Sunni extremists while turning a blind eye to the violence carried out by Shiite militia.
Followers of the militant Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who has his militia, also refused to join the new grouping.
It was not clear when the ICF cabinet members were to resume their duties, according to the news agency Aswat al-Irak.
Cornerstones of the agreement, according to the agency, include a larger participation by smaller parliamentary factions in decision-making, the release of innocent imprisoned Iraqis as well as the pursuit of all terrorists of all colours, “without discrimination”.
Al-Maliki on Sunday slammed French and US politicians for demanding he quit.
US President George W. Bush is under increasing pressure from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to draw down the US troop presence in Iraq out of frustration that the Iraqi government was not moving fast enough to get religious and ethnic groups working together.
Bush has said military strategy decisions about troop reductions will depend on key reports from General David Petraeus, commander of the Iraqi multi-national forces, and his ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, slated for delivery to Congress next month.