A leading member of the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition who signed the agreement confirmed on Wednesday that it gives a small group of clerics led by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani the last word on any disputes between the two allied blocs. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. The new Shiite alliance would likely dominate any future government, potentially giving their religious leaders a strong say over future policy. Shiite politician Karim al-Yaqoubi, who attend the signing, also confirmed the contents of the agreement. Earlier, a Sunni politician warned on Wednesday that a new alliance of conservative Iraqi Shiite parties could revive the sectarian conflict that once wracked the country.Maliki’s State of Law coalition and the conservative Shiite Iraqi National Alliance announced an electoral alliance Tuesday that leaves them just four seats shy of a ruling majority in the 325-member parliament. The alliance means Iraqiya, the bloc that won the most seats in the March 7 election with heavy Sunni backing, will likely be squeezed out of the new government -- potentially leaving the Sunnis feeling angry and disenfranchised.Hamid al-Mutlaq, who won a parliament seat on the cross-sectarian and secular Iraqiya list, expressed his hope that the new Shiite alliance will extend a hand to other parties. But he suggested sectarian conflict could flare again if it did not. “The previous years of sectarian conflict took place between Iraqi families, among the people and even within the same neighborhood. We hope that this will never come to pass again,” he warned. Al-Mutlaq is from Anbar, the predominantly Sunni province in Iraq’s west that was once home to a powerful insurgency that fought the government and US forces.
