Iraq's Untold Story: Sunni Support For Shiite Prime Minister

From Azzaman.com, Arab Sunnis Trust PM:

Most of the estranged Arab Sunnis, the source of anti-U.S. resistance, have faith in Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a study has found.

Jaafari, a Shiite and leader of the Daawa Party, came to power following the general elections held last January.

The study is the first to assess the popularity of the Prime Minister among Sunni-dominated cities in the western and northern parts of the country.

The group carrying out the investigation said that 75% of the 1437 respondents found Jaafari easy to deal with, “decent and trustworthy.”

If the post of the Prime Minister was put to vote, Jaafari will be a winner among a handful of other contesting Shiite leaders.

The prime minister, who wields extensive powers in the new Iraq, has to be a member of the majority Shiites in the country.

The poll covered large swathes of the restive Sunni heartland. Pollsters usually avoid these areas due to continuing violence and attacks on U.S. and government troops.

The group said the corpus of the study covers areas extending from northern Baghdad to Anbar on the Jordanian border and Mosul in the north.

The respondents said they liked Jaafari because “he is quiet and balanced when dealing with crises related to security, politics or internal strife.”

The group also found that the Sunnis like Jaafari for distancing himself “from sectarian and racial affiliations in contrast to the other Shiite leaders” who make no effort to hide such inclinations.

The respondents described Jaafai’s political rhetoric “as balanced and free of propaganda”, the group added.

It's really going to be something if the Iraqis end up with a much higher turnout at the polls and political leaders whose rhetoric is balanced and free of propaganda.

The story helps fill in the blanks on other dispatches like this Azzaman item saying two-thirds of Baghdad voters will vote "yes" on the constitution--while noting Sunni sentiment was hard to gauge because of a lack of polling in its strongholds.