Leaders of the Iraqi Islamic Party countered that the sheiks had only themselves to blame for boycotting the 2005 elections that ushered in representative government in Iraq. And they challenged the sheiks to take their accusations of corruption to court.
"Those people now shouting and screaming, where were they in the past?" demanded Tariq Hashimi, Iraq's Sunni vice president. "They should be ashamed about their history."
Whether true or not, the accusations underscore the mistrust between the two sides. For now, it is a war of words. But some worry that the dispute could escalate.
Saleh Mutlak, who heads a rival Sunni political group that has joined forces with the Islamic Party in parliament, said the sheiks asked him to convey a message to his allies.
"Unless there is a solution . . . then we will use our guns to displace the Islamic Party from Anbar," he quoted the sheiks as telling him.
U.S. officials play down the danger posed by the power struggle, noting that the province is recording its lowest level of violence since the war began. But they say such conflicts underscore the need for new elections to decide who controls Iraq's provinces.
"Whether you're looking at the south, and unresolved issues and tensions as to who will wield how much power, or places like Anbar, where the tribes having not participated in the previous elections find themselves in a position of some prominence yet without representation in established political structures . . . it's probably going to be fairly important to have elections within the coming year as a means of regulating this competition," U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters in Baghdad.
With most Sunnis boycotting the January 2005 vote, the Islamic Party won control of the governing council -- and the $170-million budget -- in overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar with the participation of less than 5% of voters. The sheiks argue that the low level of support is grounds for new elections.
Iyad Samarrai, the Islamic Party's secretary-general, said he was as unhappy about the vote as they are. The boycott gave the majority Shiites and ethnic Kurds a disproportionate share of provincial council seats in mixed parts of the country, as well as in the national parliament.
More Sunnis voted in the December 2005 parliamentary polls, which eased the imbalance at the national level, but new provincial elections have been postponed pending agreement on a law setting out the relationship between national and regional governments. That bill is one of several key power-sharing measures that have stalled in the fragmented parliament.
