Hakim calls for 'limitations'

2003-11-24 12:13

Najaf, Iraq - Leading Shi'ite Muslim politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim urged the US-led military forces in the country to accept limitations to its presence in Iraq in a holiday message for the end of Ramadan.

"The presence of any foreign force in Iraq is an exceptional state of affairs, there is a diminution of the sovereignty and dignity of the people of Iraq," said Hakim, as his Shi'ite community prepared to celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"The presence of these forces should be under UN resolution and with the agreement of the Iraqi side and they should take into account the opinions of the Iraqi people about the presence of these forces and the duration of their deployment," said Hakim, who heads the formerly Iran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

His party has so far co-operated with the US-led occupation authority, taking part in the interim structures it has established, although council leaders have repeatedly called for an end to the occupation as swiftly as possible.

In an about-turn earlier this month, the US-led coalition agreed to hand sovereignty to an Iraqi transitional administration by June next year without waiting for a referendum on a new constitution and general elections.

After the handover, it said its troops would remain in Iraq under an agreement with the new administration.

Unlike the majority Shi'ites, Iraq's Sunni community, the elite under former president Saddam Hussein, began the Eid holiday on Monday.

- AFP