Kurdistan Won’t Hand Over Iraqi VP to Maliki
Calls for Maliki to Accept Trial Outside of Baghdad
Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi has escaped imprisonment again, for the time being, as the Kurdistan Regional government has announced it will not hand him over to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Maliki has been trying to arrest Hashemi, one of Iraq’s top Sunni politicians, on charges of terrorism, saying he was running a death squad. Hashemi has denied the allegations and the Iraqiya Party has complained that the regime is just trying to jail potential rivals.
The Kurdish government’s statement did not outright refuse to arrest Hashemi, but said they wanted Maliki to accept certain Hashemi demands, including wanted to be tried outside of Baghdad.
Iraq’s Kurdish and Sunni Arab political blocs have withdrawn from the government complaining that Maliki is consolidating dictatorial power. The Obama Administration has praised Maliki for the moves, saying that the attempts to arrest Hashemi are “fair.“
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tomofsnj
January 12th, 2012 at 5:28 am
I think we are watching what many thought would be the splitting of Iraq into pieces. The kurds are actually in a very bad position with Turkey clearly wanting them crushed and the rest of Iraq looking at them at trouble makers. Why we got involved in this mess is a big wonder. Maybe we will not be as stupid as to repeat this fiasco with another in Iran. Personally I believe we are so under the thumb of AIPAC that we will repeat our disasters till be are white bones in Asia with our special friends watching and wondering why we are so stupid.