Iraqi media is reporting that Usama al-Tikriti, the father of a U.K. Muslim Brotherhood leader, will be heading a new Iraqi electoral coalition known as the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front (IAF). According to a report in Aswat Al Iraq:
The Sunni Iraqi Accord Front (IAF) on Saturday said its electoral list for the upcoming elections will be headed by Usama al-Tikriti and will include several religious figures and parties. During a Baghdad-based press conference held by the members of the new alliance today and attended by Aswat al-Iraq news agency, the front said that 52 prominent figures have joined the alliance. The new list includes the following: Saleem al-Jabouri, Naseer al-Aani, Hassan Toran, Usama al-Tikriti, Iyad al-Samarraie, Kanaan Basheer, Sheikh Muqdad Abd Awwad, Ahmed Bilal al-Jabouri, Ragaa Hamdoon, al-Sheikh Hassan al-Teif al-Samarraie, Khaled Mohammed Obeid, Sheikh Mohsen Sabhan al-Khalaf, Azhar al-Samarraie, Mohammed Amin Othman, Amin Shaalan Zaban, Nadira Ali, Wessam Mahmoud al-Khazraji, Qassem Mahmoud al-Jabouri, Ibrahim Jumaa Ibrahim, Rushdie al-Aali, Aesha Ghazal, Shakir Fazaa, Jawda Bahgat, Abduljabbar Shalash, Ghaleb Nofoos al-Hamad, Sheikh Taha Ahmed al-Nueimi, Sheikh Abdullah Muhidi, Tayseer al-Mashhadani, Taleb Mokhlef al-Janabi, Mohammed Rasheed Mohammed, Ziyad al-Aani, Ahmed Raheem, Faris Abdulkareem, Matshar al-Samarraie, Amal al-Qadi, Asmaa Adnan al-Dulaimi, Anwar al-Birqirdar, Sheikh Akram Fahmi al-Janabi, Mohammed Shakir al-Ghannam and others. On Wednesday (Oct. 14), MP Hashem al-Taie from the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) said that an alliance with other political blocs will create a wide political spectrum that will help strengthen the Iraqi national identity and build a state of institutions and law. Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on January 16, 2010.
As discussed in an earlier post, Usama al-Tikriti (aka Osama al-Tikriti) was elected as the new secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) last May. The IIP is strongly tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood. According to a profile posted on globalsecurity.org:
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), established in 1960, is the major Sunni political organization in the country …The party was suppressed during the regime of former President Saddam Hussein. Many of its members were forced to flee the country. The party returned to public life after coalition forces occupied Iraq. The IIP seeks to preserve the leading role Sunnis have had in running the country starting with the establishment of the modern Iraqi state in the beginning of the 20th century. The Iraqi Islamic Party was formed as an Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood organization, and conducted underground work during the Baathist period. Thee party does not considers itself a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood Group, established in Egypt in 1994, nor a political front for it in Iraq. The Iraqi Islamic Party acknowledges strong ties to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood through political and intellectual alliances.
As discussed in an earlier post, Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi had said in May that he was quitting the IIP and forming a new party of his own.
Usama al-Tikriti is also the father of Anas al-Tikriti, the former leader of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) a leader in the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), both part of the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood.