Al-Maliki blames stalemate on Sunni
BAGHDAD – A rift in the highest levels of Iraq’s government widened Tuesday and threatened to undermine U.S. efforts to unite the fractious central government behind compromises on distributing oil revenues and other key issues.
In an interview with an Iraqi newspaper, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, accused the country’s Sunni vice president of blocking key legislation approved by Iraq’s Shiite-dominated parliament. Al-Maliki also suggested that the parliament’s largest Sunni bloc isn’t representative of the country’s Sunni minority.
“There are 26 laws that are blocked in the presidency council, and it is the vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, who is blocking them,” al-Maliki said in the interview, which was published Tuesday in the Dar al Hayat newspaper.
Al-Hashemi could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi military spokesman said that authorities were still holding 43 foreigners who were detained Monday after private security guards shot and wounded a girl in Baghdad’s Karrada district. The spokesman raised the possibility that authorities might use the case to test a U.S. decree that grants private security contractors immunity for their actions under Iraqi law.
“The law will deal with it as would any law in any country,” said Qassim Atta, the spokesman for Baghdad’s security forces.
Al-Maliki’s latest verbal flare-up comes as U.S. officials are urging Iraqi leaders to use a relative lull in violence to broker peace among the country’s rival Shiite and Sunni Arabs and Kurds and to act more quickly to address the country’s key issues.
“It is very important that Iraqi leaders continue to work toward reconciliation, work toward taking the important steps required to move things forward now that the security situation has allowed that to happen,” Phil Reeker, the top spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, said Sunday.
Al-Maliki’s combativeness, however, hasn’t helped that process. He’s been openly critical of other top officials, including the three who make up Iraq’s presidency council, al-Hashemi; President Jalal Talibani, a Kurd; and Vice President Adel Abdulmehdi, a Shiite political rival. The three must approve all legislation before it can be enacted.