Iraq leader warns of collapse and Barzani calls for Urgent National Meeting ...

He said .. She said ... Someone Has an Agenda .. Just not sure who or why. Listen to what Hashemi says in this interview June 2010 ..watch video @ (may only be sound ... wait to listen) link and ..Article with video Video ~ Tareq al-Hashemi (Mr. Delay) Iraqiya List on Iraq's Delayed government ... and today's article .. Iraq Issues Arrest Warrant for Sunni Vice President ...

Watch ~ Iyad Allawi ~ 'Saddam without a moustache' ... BBC News Profile ...

Snip from today's article below ~ Mutlak, who was accused of being a supporter of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party in the run-up to the 2010 elections that he was barred from standing in, told his own Babiliyah television channel this month that Maliki was 'worse than Saddam Hussein'.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Iraq leader warns of collapse

An Iraqi leader has called for urgent talks to prevent the 'collapse' of a unity government, with its Sunni vice-president barred from foreign travel in an unfolding crisis following the withdrawal of US troops.

Continues ...read more ..

Barely a day after American forces completed their pullout, two of Iraq's main political blocs were at loggerheads, with Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, both Sunni members of the secular Iraqiya bloc, coming under pressure from the Shi'ite-led authorities.

A judicial committee said on Monday Hashemi was not allowed to leave the country, and several of his bodyguards have been detained in connection with terrorist attacks, while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has moved for Mutlak to be sacked.

Massud Barzani, president of the autonomous northern Kurdish region, later issued a statement calling for 'an urgent national meeting to avoid the collapse of the political process.

'The situation is heading towards deep crisis, and the ruling partnership has become threatened,' said Barzani, who in November 2010 hosted a meeting of senior Iraqi leaders at which the foundations of the national unity government were laid, ending months of impasse following elections in March that year.

He did not propose a date for the meeting in Monday's statement.

Earlier, a five-member judicial panel barred Hashemi and several of his guards from travelling overseas 'due to issues related to terrorism', a senior security official told AFP.

State broadcaster Al-Iraqiya TV also reported the travel ban.

Three of Hashemi's guards were also arrested on Sunday evening, when the vice-president was briefly escorted off a domestic flight from Baghdad to the Kurdish region's capital, Arbil. Ten others have been detained in recent weeks.

His office on Monday complained of 'intentional harassment' in the form of a security force blockading his home for several weeks, as well as other incidents.

The latest events come after the Iraqiya bloc of Hashemi and Mutlak said on Saturday it was boycotting parliament in protest over the prime minister's alleged monopolising of power.

On Sunday Maliki called for Mutlak to be ousted, and MPs are due to consider his request on January 3, a parliament official said.

Mutlak, who was accused of being a supporter of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party in the run-up to the 2010 elections that he was barred from standing in, told his own Babiliyah television channel this month that Maliki was 'worse than Saddam Hussein'.

Iraqiya, which holds 82 seats in the 325-member parliament and controls nine ministerial posts, has not pulled out of Iraq's national unity government.

The bloc, which garnered most of its support from the Sunni Arab minority and emerged with the most seats in March 2010 elections, was outmanoeuvred for the premiership by Maliki who, after finishing second in the polls, struck a deal with another group to broaden his power base and lead the government.

The political party loyal to anti-US Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr lamented that the timing of the crisis, after US troops completed their withdrawal from the country early on Sunday, suggested American forces had held the political system together.

'We do not want to send any wrong message to the world, after the withdrawal of the occupying forces, that the one who was controlling the issues in Iraq was the occupier,' said Baha al-Araji, head of the Sadrist parliamentary bloc.

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