The influence of Sunni Arab politicians in the government is
questionable. The leadership of the Sunni Arab insurgency is murky,
but the following two key Sunni Arab figures have broad support.
tariq al-hashimi: Hashimi is one of two vice presidents of Iraq and
the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Muslim bloc in
parliament. Hashimi opposes the formation of autonomous regions and
has advocated the distribution of oil revenues based on population, a
reversal of de-Baathification, and the removal of Shiite militia
fighters from the Iraqi security forces. Shiite death squads have
recently killed three of his siblings.
sheik harith al-dhari: Dhari is the head of the Muslim Scholars
Association, the most influential Sunni organization in Iraq. Dhari
has condemned the American occupation and spoken out against the Iraqi
government. His organization has ties both to the Sunni Arab
insurgency and to Sunnis within the Iraqi government. A warrant was
recently issued for his arrest for inciting violence and terrorism, an
act that sparked bitter Sunni protests across Iraq.
Iraqi Kurds have succeeded in presenting a united front of two main
political blocs--the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The Kurds have secured a largely
autonomous Kurdish region in the north, and have achieved a prominent
role for Kurds within the national government. Barzani leads the
Kurdish regional government, and Talabani is president of Iraq.
Leading Kurdish politicians told us they preferred to be within a
democratic, federal Iraqi state because an independent Kurdistan would
be surrounded by hostile neighbors. However, a majority of Kurds favor
independence. The Kurds have their own security forces--the
peshmerga--which number roughly 100,000. They believe they could
accommodate themselves to either a unified or a fractured Iraq.