Iraq’s sidelined Sunnis weigh options amid US-Iran conflict
Iraq’s Sunni politicians, who are facing great challenges in managing areas still recovering from the damage caused by the Islamic State, worry that Iran-US tensions will have an added negative effect.
BAGHDAD — As tensions between the United States and Iran escalated in recent weeks, Iraqi Sunnis have for the most part simply watched warily and wearily.
Sunni and Kurdish members of parliament largely boycotted a Jan. 5 parliamentary session on a resolution urging the government to force foreign armed forces out after the outcry that followed a US drone attack at the Baghdad airport that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
“We told them at that time that yes, you (Shiite parties) are the majority and we do not hate you. But is this the right decision, against the US, now?” prominent Sunni member of parliament Mohammed al-Karbouli told Al-Monitor in an extended interview in the Iraqi capital Jan. 14.
“And now they are all in Iran and talking there. Engaging in negotiations there, with Iran. And they are saying we simply want to put someone in place as leader and then we will prepare for another election,” he said.
