PM calls for rivals to return from exile
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for national reconciliation yesterday, opening the door for former opponents to return home as he struggles to form a new government seven months after polls.
His remarks were his first on the subject since the March 7 elections, which were marred by many candidates being disqualified for their alleged ties to executed dictator Saddam Hussein's banned Baath party.
They were seen as an olive branch to former party members, many of them living in exile and opposed to the current regime.
"We must ... turn a new page with all those who have gone too far and made mistakes," he told a conference of tribal chiefs in Baghdad in a speech broadcast on state television.
"I do not mean those who have blood on their hands, but those who object to the political process," he added.
"We can say that what happened has happened and those who made mistakes made mistakes, but the door to return to the country is open.
"We forgive and turn the page because the country cannot be built on the basis of hatred and rancour," Maliki said.
His comments come amid a political impasse that has persisted since the March elections in which Maliki's Shia bloc finished a narrow second behind the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya group of ex-premier Iyad Allawi.
Since then, Maliki has joined forces with parliament's third party, also Shia, to form a coalition. But he still remains 30 seats short of the legislative majority necessary to form a government.
Allawi, a secular Shia, was himself a member of the Baath party until the late-1970s when he left the party and, subsequently, the country. He survived multiple assassination attempts, allegedly by Saddam.
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