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Iraq PM calls emergency political summit
13.8.2007
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August 13, 2007
BAGHDAD,-- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
has called for the senior leaders from Iraq's
bitterly divided communities to hold crisis talks
aimed at saving his beleaguered national unity
government.
"I have invited major political leaders to a meeting
to discuss substantial matters," Mr Maliki said in a
televised speech.
"Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow could be the
first meeting for these leaders to discuss the
political program and important strategic problems."
Seventeen ministerial posts in Mr Maliki's
government are empty or filled by members boycotting
cabinet meetings, amid protests by many parties at
Mr Maliki's faltering program of national
reconciliation.
Hopes that his so-called unity coalition can be
saved now depends on the senior leadership of the
rival parties cutting a new power-sharing deal that
can convince the bitter Sunni minority to return to
the fold. |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad Nuri al-Maliki |
Mr Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and
Vice President Adil Abdel Mehdi, another Shiite, are
expected to attend the crisis summit.
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the senior Sunni
Arab in the Government and a critic of Mr Maliki's
alleged sectarian bias whose presence would be
considered crucial, has not yet made it clear
whether he will attend.
Mr Talabani's office has also said that contacts
with political blocs would take place in the next
few days, without giving any details, following his
talks in Baghdad with Iraqi Kurdistan President
Massoud Barzani.
Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has
plunged into an abyss of overlapping civil conflicts
that have divided its rival religious and ethnic
communities and left tens of thousands of civilians
dead.
Washington has warned Iraq's leaders to work harder
on unity, concerned that the political stalemate
could torpedo efforts to reconcile the warring
factions and undermine the work of 155,000 American
troops to end the conflict.
Shiite parties are suspicious of Sunni leaders whose
minority sect dominated political power under
executed former dictator Saddam Hussein and accuse
them of supporting violent insurgent groups.
AFP
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