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ARBIL, (Kurdistan) Iraq, Oct 3 (AFP) - 16h51 -
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and fellow Kurdish
leader Massud Barzani have warned Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jaafari his high-handed running of the
government is jeopardizing their support.
"If you do not quickly resolve (these) problems, it
will affect our alliance," the Kurdish leaders said
in a letter sent to Jaafari, Mullah Bakhtiar, a
senior member of Talibani's Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, told reporters Monday.
"We have sent a joint delegation to Baghdad for
talks with Jaafari's government about our
grievances," Bakhtiar said.
Jaafari, who heads the Shiite-led governmental
coalition, has failed to keep to agreements made
with Kurdish allies, he added.
Talabani and Barzani outlined 16 points of
disagreement with the premier, ranging from failing
to keep meetings with the president and
parliamentary speaker, to appointing top civil
servants without the consent of coalition partners,
to packing government delegations on trips abroad
with ministers from his own party.
They also accused him of not giving their
semi-autonomous Kurdish region its rightful share of
economic development projects.
"If Jaafati continues down this road, I think we'll
hit a dead end," Bakhtiar said.
A simmering row between Talabani and Jaafari erupted
when both insisted they should lead an Iraqi
delegation travelling to the United States and to
the United Nations in New York last month.
Jaafari said Sunday he refused to become embroiled
in a row with Talabani who had last week accused him
during a press conference of exceeding his
authority.
"Like you, I heard (Talabani's comments) but I
haven't got time to respond," Jaafari said.
"My time is taken up running the executive branch of
the government. I will express myself forcefully
when the time is right," he added.
Talabani and Barzani, the president of northern
Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish zone, have also
accused the Shiite-led government of reneging on an
agreement to reinstall Kurds in the disputed
northern city of Kirkuk, the target of years of
Arabisation under deposed leader Saddam Hussein.
The political tensions in Baghdad's corridors of
power surfaced with barely two weeks to go before
the country votes on a new post-Saddam constitution
written largely by representatives of the Shiite
majority and its Kurdish allies in parliament.
The October 15 vote on the draft constitution is
seen as a key milestone in Iraq's political
transition following Saddam's ouster in April 2003,
and is due to be followed by fresh elections in
December.
AFP
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