Iraq's top Shi'ite criticises U.S. plans

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=409457§ion=news

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's top Shi'ite religious authority has criticised U.S. plans for transferring sovereignty to Iraqis as incomplete and insufficiently Islamic, a leading Shi'ite politician has said.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) which is represented on the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, said Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, widely revered as Iraq's most influential Islamic leader, had expressed misgivings about the plan.

Sistani rarely makes public pronouncements on politics but his status means any criticism of the timetable for the transfer of power could mean many Shi'ites reject the plan.

"He expressed concern about real gaps, which must be dealt with or the plan will lack the ability to meet the hopes of the Iraqi people. It diminishes the role of the Iraqi people in the process of transferring authority to Iraqis," Hakim told a news conference in the holy city of Najaf on Wednesday.

"He didn't find anything that assures Islamic identity... here should have been a stipulation which prevents legislating anything that contradicts Islam in the new Iraq, in either the interim or permanent phase."

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