‘Maliki is a Dictator,’ his Deputy Charges, Amid Sunni Protests Against the Shiite Premier
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki meets with Sunni religious scholars seeking a solution for mass demonstrations in Anbar province.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki “is a dictator” and should resign, his deputy said on Thursday, amid Sunni-led protests against the Shiite premier that have been building over the past two weeks.
“Maliki is a dictator and I do not regret calling him a dictator in the past,” deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq told Al Arabiya television.
Mutlaq, the senior leader of the Sunni al-Iraqiya bloc and Maliki’s most serious critic, told the network that the prime minister should dissolve government and call for fresh elections, without nominating himself for the premiership.
Mutlaq’s comments came amid protests in Iraq’s Anbar and Nineveh provinces, which were triggered
after police last month raided the office and home of the Sunni finance minister, Rafie al-Issawi, and arrested 10 of his bodyguards.
Maliki’s Shiite-led government, a fragile alliance with Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds, has been facing increasing accusations of authoritarian rule.
The premier triggered a serious crisis that has escalated to talk of war with the Kurds, after unilaterally forming a controversial new military force and deploying it in disputed northern territories that are also claimed by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.
Residents and tribal leaders of Iraq’s Sunni provinces accuse Maliki’s government of neglecting their areas and of random arrests of their people by Iraqi police.
The protests, which began in late December, have been backed by political and religious leaders of Iraq’s large Sunni minority.
Last week, Sunni cleric Sheikh Abdulmalik al-Saadi joined protestors who have blocked the main road and trade link with Syria and Jordan, and called on the government, “To stop its policy of marginalization, release all prisoners held in Iraqi jails and stop the abuse of female prisoners.”
FULL STORY:
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