The important Shia leader al-Sistani said today that he opposes the change to the de-baathification law.

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Syria, for instance, claims to have embarked on a programme of voluntary de-Baathification.

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Referring to Iraqi's ruling Baath Party, he called for "de-Baathification" of the country.

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However, the GAO report noted the Iraq government has not passed formal de-Baathification legislation and gave the Iraqis an "unmet" grade on that benchmark.

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He is also steering a modification to the de-baathification program.

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And Maliki is committed to modifying that de-baathification program.

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They want some kind of movement on and constraining of the de-Baathification campaign, and they want some kind of renegotiation of the constitution on the big issues of federalism and oil, which we could come to.

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