Iraq's Top Shi'ite Criticizes U.S. Political Plans

[shawn703]

Iraq's top Shi'ite religious authority has criticized U.S. plans for the transfer of power to Iraqis as incomplete and paying too little heed to Islam, a leading Shi'ite politician said on Wednesday.

Resistance from the cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, could lead to rejection by many of the Shi'ite Muslims who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population. But Sistani appeared to have stopped short of any outright dismissal of the program.

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In the holy city of Najaf, Abdul-Aziz Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said Sistani, widely revered as Iraq's most influential Shi'ite leader, believed the new U.S.-backed roadmap was flawed.

Hakim told a news conference he had met Sistani, who rarely makes public pronouncements on politics, to discuss the plan.

"He didn't find anything that assures Islamic identity," he said. "There should have been a stipulation which prevents legislating anything that contradicts Islam in the new Iraq."

Hakim is a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and SCIRI has cooperated with the occupying powers in Iraq, drawing criticism from some Shi'ites. He said Sistani had several misgivings about the U.S. political timetable.

"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 said.

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