No room for militias in Iraqi politics

BAGHDAD, April 14 (UPI) -- Iraqi officials agreed to a draft provision of the law on provincial elections to take place Oct. 1, though it bans political parties retaining their militias.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said lawmakers would deliver the draft to the Iraqi Parliament "very soon," the Iranian state-run Press TV said Monday.

Zebari sought to downplay any claims the militia provision targeted forces loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, the Mahdi Army, saying it was "absolutely crystal clear" that "any parties" maintaining their militias could not participate in the election.

Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman for the Iraqi government, said the 275-member Parliament has 90 days to pass the law.

Iraq's three-member Presidential Council approved the election law and two other measures on March 19, when Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi from the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council withdrew his objection, Voices of Iraq noted.

Meanwhile, Kurdish Prime Minister Nejervan Barzani in a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said talks between a Kurdish delegation and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reached "positive" developments on establishing stronger ties between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.