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BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq threatened Wednesday to abandon an American-backed power-sharing government created a year ago, throwing the country's fragile democracy into further turmoil just days after the departure of American troops.
In a nearly 90-minute news conference aired on tape-delay on state television, al-Maliki told Kurdish leaders that there would be "problems" if they do not turn over Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who fled to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in recent days to escape an arrest warrant on charges he ran a death squad responsible for assassinations and bombings.
The Iraqi leader, a Shiite, also issued a warning to his rivals from Iraqiya, the largely Sunni bloc of lawmakers that includes al-Hashimi: If it does not end its boycott of Parliament and the Council of Ministers, he would move to form a majority government that would, in essence, exclude them from power. If Iraqiya's ministers do not show up at future sessions, he said, "we will appoint replacements."
The crisis was triggered when the Shiite-dominated government issued its arrest warrant for al-Hashimi, the top Sunni politician, on terrorism charges.
In calling for the Kurds to turn over al-Hashimi, al-Maliki risked alienating a powerful minority that operates in its own semiautonomous region and whose support he would need to form a new government without the support of the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya. While in the north, al-Hashimi is largely out of reach of al-Maliki's security forces, and from there could easily flee the country.
"We demand the Kurdistan region hand him over, and to bear the responsibility and do their duty," al-Maliki said. "If he escapes, this will create problems."
Iraq now faces myriad political problems that in sum could derail the national unity government, which American diplomats helped craft last year and which is supposed to include meaningful roles for Iraq's three major factions — Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
The minority Sunni community, which had dominated Iraq's affairs under Saddam Hussein, feels increasingly marginalized. Al-Maliki has also recently sought a vote of no-confidence from Parliament against another Sunni leader, the Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, for calling al-Maliki a "dictator" in a television interview.
All of this comes just after the final withdrawal of American troops at the weekend, after nearly nine years of war that began with the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam's Sunni-dominated government. The departure of the Americans left behind a country that President Obama described as "stable and self-reliant."
Many Iraqis feared the consequences of a power vacuum left after the departing American troops, but most did not anticipate the country's precarious politics to disintegrate so quickly.
"I was expecting this to happen, but not so soon," said Saif Abdul Salaam, a barber in Adhamiya, a largely Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.
"The Sunnis are angry, but they can't do anything because they don't control anything," he said.
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In a nearly 90-minute news conference aired on tape-delay on state television, al-Maliki told Kurdish leaders that there would be "problems" if they do not turn over Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who fled to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in recent days to escape an arrest warrant on charges he ran a death squad responsible for assassinations and bombings.
The Iraqi leader, a Shiite, also issued a warning to his rivals from Iraqiya, the largely Sunni bloc of lawmakers that includes al-Hashimi: If it does not end its boycott of Parliament and the Council of Ministers, he would move to form a majority government that would, in essence, exclude them from power. If Iraqiya's ministers do not show up at future sessions, he said, "we will appoint replacements."
The crisis was triggered when the Shiite-dominated government issued its arrest warrant for al-Hashimi, the top Sunni politician, on terrorism charges.
In calling for the Kurds to turn over al-Hashimi, al-Maliki risked alienating a powerful minority that operates in its own semiautonomous region and whose support he would need to form a new government without the support of the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya. While in the north, al-Hashimi is largely out of reach of al-Maliki's security forces, and from there could easily flee the country.
"We demand the Kurdistan region hand him over, and to bear the responsibility and do their duty," al-Maliki said. "If he escapes, this will create problems."
Iraq now faces myriad political problems that in sum could derail the national unity government, which American diplomats helped craft last year and which is supposed to include meaningful roles for Iraq's three major factions — Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
The minority Sunni community, which had dominated Iraq's affairs under Saddam Hussein, feels increasingly marginalized. Al-Maliki has also recently sought a vote of no-confidence from Parliament against another Sunni leader, the Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, for calling al-Maliki a "dictator" in a television interview.
All of this comes just after the final withdrawal of American troops at the weekend, after nearly nine years of war that began with the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam's Sunni-dominated government. The departure of the Americans left behind a country that President Obama described as "stable and self-reliant."
Many Iraqis feared the consequences of a power vacuum left after the departing American troops, but most did not anticipate the country's precarious politics to disintegrate so quickly.
"I was expecting this to happen, but not so soon," said Saif Abdul Salaam, a barber in Adhamiya, a largely Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.
"The Sunnis are angry, but they can't do anything because they don't control anything," he said.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
