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Iraqi president Jalal Talabani rebuffs
move to unseat premier
31.5.2012 |
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Iraqi president Jalal Talabani talks to Kurdistan
president Massoud Barzani.
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May 31, 2012
BAGHDAD, — A broad alliance seeking to
unseat Iraq's prime minister failed Wednesday to
persuade the country's president to make a first
move by calling a parliamentary no-confidence vote
against the government, a lawmaker said.
Iraq's Shiite-dominated ruling coalition is
increasingly shaky.
One coalition member, the heavily Sunni Iraqiya
movement, has long complained about being shut out
of decision-making. Recently, two other groups Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki had courted successfully -
Kurds and the hard-line Shiite followers of
prominent cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - have also
threatened to defect.
On Wednesday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani held a
round of meetings with Kurdish, Sunni, and Sadrist
politicians in a resort in Iraq's autonomous
northern Kurdistan region to hear their demands in
Dukan resort in Sulaimaniyah provice..
"They could not persuade the president to send a
message to parliament to hold a vote of no
confidence," Kurdish lawmaker Mahmud Othman said. He
said Talabani prefers to convene talks among all
coalition members to resolve their differences.
Talabani later issued a vague statement, saying he
remained committed to the constitution.
Even if a no-confidence vote is held, it is not
clear that Maliki's opponents could muster the
needed absolute majority, or 163 of parliament's 325
members, to bring down the government.
Earlier Wednesday, two senior politicians said
Iraq's powerful Shiite neighbor, Iran, had stepped
up efforts to protect Maliki.
"There is some Iranian pressure on the president not
to send the letter to parliament and to support
Maliki," said a lawmaker of Maliki's political bloc,www.ekurd.net
speaking on condition of anonymity because he was
not permitted to discuss sensitive political
dealings with reporters.
Talabani is a Kurd but has close ties to Iran.
A senior Sadrist said Maliki was still seen by the
movement as the best option, despite growing
concerns that he is amassing power.
By Qassim Abdul-zahra, AP
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