One of the most influential tribal leaders said on Friday that he was willing to work with Shia prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi.

Ali Hatem Suleiman left open a possibility that Sunnis would take up arms against ISIL terrorists in the same way as he and others joined government forces to thwart an Al-Qaeda insurgency in Iraq between 2006 and 2009.

Abadi faces the daunting task of pacifying Iraq and particularly the vast desert province of Anbar. It forms much of the border with Syria, where the Takfiri terrorists also control swathes of territory.

Taha Mohammed al-Hamdoon, spokesman for the tribal and clerical leaders, told Reuters that Sunni representatives in Anbar and other provinces had drawn up a list of demands.

The United Nations Security Council blacklisted ISIL spokesman and five other terrorists on Friday and threatened sanctions against those backing the insurgents, giving UN experts 90 days to report on who those people are.

Iraq has been plunged into its worst violence since the peak of a clash in 2006-2007, with radical, foreign-sponsored insurgents led by ISIL overrunning large parts of the west and north, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives and threatening ethnic Kurds in their autonomous province.

NTJ/MB