Iraqi Sunnis plan lobbying operation in Washington

[ieffinhatecardio]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/03/18/iraqi_sunnis_plan_lobbying_operation_in_washington/

Iran perceived as a common threat

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff  |  March 18, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Members of the largest Sunni Muslim political bloc in Iraq's Parliament are planning to open a lobbying operation in Washington, in a dramatic shift for Sunni parties that once boycotted Iraq's elections and turned down opportunities for dialogue with the United States.

The move reflects a growing realization among many Sunnis that they need US help to counter their Shi'ite political rivals, who are backed by Iran, an archenemy they now share with the United States.

The decision by Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi , a leader of the Sunni alliance that holds 44 of 275 seats in Parliament, to begin lobbying in Washington also highlights how deep the divisions among Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds have become. Each group now has its own representatives in Washington to push its agenda at the State Department, the White House, and on Capitol Hill.

"We hope this is something temporary until we get Iraq back together as a country," said Muthanna al-Hanooti , president of Focus on Advocacy and Advancement of International Relations, the Michigan-based consulting firm hired by Hashemi to lobby for Sunnis. "But realistically speaking, it is divided now."

Hanooti said his clients want to represent all Iraqis, not just Sunnis. But his mission is to raise awareness about key Sunni grievances. According to papers filed at the Department of Justice's Foreign Agents Registration office, Hanooti plans to push for the United States to open negotiations with the Sunni-led insurgency and to seek the release of tens of thousands of prisoners detained without charge in Iraq, "the overwhelming number of whom are Sunnis."

Hanooti also seeks US help in ending the "sectarian cleansing" of Sunnis from the leadership of many Iraqi ministries and in overhauling the Shi'ite-led Ministry of Health, the document says, alleging that Iraqi health officials routinely refuse to treat ill patients who have Sunni names.

"This is the first time in history that the Sunni group will have at least some kind of existence in Washington," Hanooti said, adding that Kurds and Shi'ites have had representation in Washington for years, since the era of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Hanooti began working for Hashemi in July from his headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., but now plans to open an office in Washington with a staff of perhaps as many as 10 people to deal with issues ranging from human rights to media relations.

He said that Hashemi, one of two Iraqi vice presidents and one of the most visible Sunnis in government, began his search for a US representative last year. Hashemi was looking for an Iraqi-born American from a prominent Sunni family. Hanooti, who left Baghdad in 1980, fit the bill.

While many Shi'ite and Kurdish exiles in the United States encouraged the US administration to oust Hussein, Hanooti and other Sunnis had lobbied for an end to international sanctions against Hussein's regime. At the time, he worked for Life for Relief and Development, a Michigan-based charity that has been accused of funding Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that the State Department considers a terrorist organization.

In September , the FBI searched the group's headquarters and Hanooti's home and took financial documents related to his work in Iraq. The results of the search are unclear, although some materials have been returned. Officials from Life for Relief have said it is a tax-related matter.

Such a history might make Hanooti unwelcome in some corners of Washington, and it remains to be seen how warmly he will be received here. But the rising fears in Washington about Iran's growing influence in Iraq have caused the interests of Sunnis and some US officials in Washington to coincide.

"The Sunnis and the Americans both have a common interest in countering Iran," Hanooti said.

US relations with Iraq's Sunnis have been rocky since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled Hussein's Sunni-led regime. The US-led occupation kicked many top Sunnis from Hussein's Ba'ath Party out of the civil service and dissolved the Sunni-dominated army. Anger at the occupation fueled a Sunni-led insurgency that continues today.

Even Sunni groups that are considered moderate, such as Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party, ended up withdrawing from Iraq's interim government in the fall of 2004 -- after the US attack on Fallujah -- and joining the broader Sunni boycott of elections to form a new government in January 2005. But Sunni leaders began to rethink their strategy after a landslide Shi'ite victory. They lobbied US officials to help them push for changes in Iraq's constitution and stood for parliamentary elections in December 2005, under a coalition called the Tawafuq Front.

The appointment in the summer of 2005 of Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-born Sunni, as US ambassador to Iraq also helped warm relations between Sunni leaders and the United States. Khalilzad made special efforts to address their political grievances.

Last year, the thinking of many Sunnis shifted even more, with the rise of Shi'ite militias who routinely kidnap and murder Sunni civilians. As the US military cracked down on the Shi'ite militias and the Iranian government that allegedly arms them, many Sunnis began to see the United States as a necessary ally.

"There is a realization among Sunni Arab politicians and some insurgents that the real enemy is not the United States, which is temporarily in Iraq, but Iran, which is the real long-term threat," said Joost Hiltermann, Jordan-based Middle East project director of the International Crisis Group.

Kenneth Pollack , senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, said the view that the violence in Iraq "is all Iran's fault" might find some traction in Washington, however inaccurate it might be. "They are going to find some who agree with that in the administration and they are going to give them all the evidence they can," he said.

Hashemi received a warm welcome in December when he visited President Bush at the White House. But the Sunni lobbying effort in Washington faces serious obstacles. Not least, Sunni groups are deeply divided and are dominated by extremists who have little in common with the political parties serving in Parliament.

Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party is a descendant of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq, a movement that was repressed by Hussein. As such, Hiltermann said, the party has more in common with the Shi'ites and Kurds who are now in Iraq's government than the radical Sunni nationalists and disgruntled Ba'athists who command the loyalty of much of the Sunni population. James Zogby , president of the Arab American Institute, said the opening of yet another Iraqi lobbying operation in Washington is not a sign of increasing political savvy on the part of Iraqi Sunnis, but rather a symbol of what has gone wrong in Iraq.

"This fragmentation of representation is symptomatic of the problem," he said. "The audience they need to reach is not in Congress, is not in the administration. It's in Iraq."