RIYADH, Dec 15 (AFP) - The head of one of Iraq's main Shiite Muslim parties said Wednesday he had agreed with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler on the need for all Iraqi groups to take part in the political process as the country prepares for landmark elections.
"There was agreement on the importance of the continuation of the political process in Iraq and the participation of all Iraqi sides in it," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), told AFP after talks with Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
"No political, ethnic or sectarian group should be excluded from the political process aimed at building a new Iraq," he said.
Hakim's Iran-backed religious party will contest the January 30 elections as part of an alliance of Shiite factions backed by Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
A total of 83 separate candidate lists have registered for the polls, in which voters will elect a 275-member interim national assembly that will draft a permanent constitution as well as oversee a new government to replace the provisional line-up picked by the US-led coalition.
But boycott calls by leading Sunni clerics, coupled with sabotage threats by insurgent groups, have sparked fears that Sunni voters will stay at home, leaving them unrepresented in the new assembly and even more alienated.
Hakim said "Iraqis living in some areas controlled by the terrorists will come under pressure not to take part in the elections" but denied that a boycott was supported by ordinary Sunnis.
The interim government should strive to "establish the appropriate climate to ensure that these people take part in the vote," he added.
12/15/2004 20:25 GMT - AFP