Iraq and Afghanistan

The latest news is that the effort of the Ayatollah Sistani to bring the different Shiite parties together for the election seems to be failing. A group of parties calling themselves the "Shiite Council have decided to break away from the United Iraqi Alliance that Sistani has sponsored. The disputes are over which parties get the higher positions on the election lists. Most of the people we have heard of before, including Chalabi and Muqtada al-Sadr are staying with the Alliance that is dominated by the Dawa and Sciri parties (the two older wings of the Shiite world in Iraq, the latter being a party considered dominated by Iranians. The Council's chief objection seems to be that there are too many foreigners or exiles in the Alliance list. Although many parties are in the Council, their makeup is unclear. They seem to be more nativist and antiforeign than the main stream, but this is just an impression. Postscript: The next day the report is that the parties have made up, and indeed the project of having one large list including nearly everyone is back on the burners. It is also reported that several Sunni parties are preparing their lists even after they had opposed going ahead with the January elections.