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BAGHDAD — An upcoming election intended to ease Iraq’s sectarian rifts is instead dredging up old hostilities — with the White House sending Vice President Joe Biden to smooth tensions between the Shiites who hold power and the Sunnis who want a greater slice of it.
Some Sunni leaders have been outraged by the Shiite- led government’s political blacklist against perceived backers of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime, and by officials in a Shiite holy city vowing to banish any Hussein loyalists before the balloting for parliament in six weeks.
Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, said Biden will visit Iraq to press the government to suspend efforts to block suspected members of Hussein’s Baath Party from public jobs until after the voting.
