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Baghdad (AFP) Nov 11, 2010 Iraq's parliament is to meet on Thursday to choose a speaker, the first step in forming a government and ending a months-long power vacuum that has witnessed growing violence in the country. MPs are to meet at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT), a parliamentary source said on Wednesday night after three days of talks by the country's feuding political leadership ended without any apparent agreement. The 11th-hour talks had continued well into the night, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki showing no sign of comprising with his main rival ahead of the key parliamentary meeting. Ex-premier Iyad Allawi, who narrowly won the March elections, and his Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, are jockeying for power against Maliki's Shiite State of Law alliance. On Wednesday, Maliki blasted his rivals for a boycott the previous day. "Even if there are differences it should be remembered that we are in the same boat," Maliki said after Allawi failed to show up on Tuesday. "But if these differences are not managed responsibly they can easily degenerate into conflict," Maliki said against the background of a flare-up in violence that some leaders blame on the power vacuum. A string of anti-Christian bombings on Wednesday killed six people, only days after a hostage crisis at a Baghdad cathedral by Al-Qaeda gunmen that killed 44 worshippers and two priests. Scores have also been killed in bomb attacks this month on Shiite neighbourhoods of Baghdad, and Iraq's predominantly Shiite southern cities. "We must take up the challenges that arise, not allow conspirators to return and put their hand into all that we have achieved," Maliki said in an apparent barb at Allawi, who is a former member of the Baath party that was led by executed dictator Saddam Hussein. Iraqiya members said they were being pressed to accept the post of parliament speaker, leaving the premiership to the Shiites and allowing the Kurds to retain the presidency. An MP close to Allawi told AFP on Tuesday that Iraqiya's leader had stayed away because the party did not want to relinquish the prospect of taking the presidency or the premiership and have to settle for the speaker's job. Last month, the supreme court ordered MPs to end a hiatus and resume work, starting with choosing a speaker on Thursday. Once a speaker is chosen, parliament then elects the president of the country, who nominates the prime minister.
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Iraq power-sharing dispute comes down to the wireBaghdad (AFP) Nov 10, 2010 Iraq's leadership ended three days of talks aimed at breaking an eight-month power vacuum without announcing any success, and now face a meeting of parliament on Thursday to elect a speaker, the first step toward forming a government, a parliamentary source said. "They decided that Parliament will meet tomorrow at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT)," the source said on Wednesday night without providing furt ... read more |
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