Key Sunni Arab Group Predicates Its Participation on Troops' Leaving

The proclamation by the Muslim Scholars Assn. is an indication of the minefields that lie ahead as Shiite Arab and Kurdish coalitions triumphant in last month's landmark election seek to bring disaffected Sunni Arabs into the political process. Although the scholars association is not regarded as representative of a majority of Sunni Arabs, it has demonstrated its political clout before with its call for a boycott of the Jan. 30 vote for a transitional national assembly.

Even as the association was making its pullout demand, the Shiite-led alliance that won the most votes in the balloting seemed to be looking for other ways to placate disenfranchised Sunnis. There were indications Tuesday that the alliance was leaning toward a moderate Islamist, Ibrahim Jafari, as its nominee for the powerful post of prime minister.

Jafari, one of two vice presidents in the current, interim government, has broad popularity and is generally considered more palatable to Sunnis than a number of other possible Shiite nominees. But several people close to the nomination process declined to confirm Iraqi media reports of his selection, and one indicated that Ahmad Chalabi, a former exile leader who once had close ties to the Pentagon and who also ran on the successful Shiite slate, was still in contention.

Chalabi is widely unpopular among Sunni Arabs. After the U.S.-led toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, Chalabi served on the former American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and was a strong proponent of purging members of Hussein's Baath Party from the new government. Hussein, a Sunni, favored his sect, and many Sunnis belonged to the party. Even nominal Baath Party members lost their jobs and livelihoods as a result of the de-Baathification campaign.

The gentlemanly Jafari, a physician, has long been affiliated with the Dawa Party, one of the two main groupings on the winning Shiite alliance slate. The other is the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Compared with the supreme council, Dawa is not considered to be as closely allied with neighboring Iran. That is significant, because many Sunni Arabs and other Iraqis fear that a Shiite-led government would be dominated by Iran, an overwhelmingly Shiite nation.