BAGHDAD (AP) — A group of Iraqi political dissidents says it has created a new opposition party to act as a check on the country’s government.
About 45 activists on Saturday announced the creation of the Union of Patriotic Figures and described it as a secular political group of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Among them was Mishaan al-Saadi, who unsuccessfully ran for election to parliament in 2010 on the secular but Sunni-dominated Iraqiya list.
The new group is forming as Iraq grapples with a political crisis over an arrest warrant issued against the Sunni vice president by the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Al-Saadi said the party would seek to recruit other politicians and act as a “real opposition to the parliament.”
