Iraq crisis: PM Nouri al-Maliki refuses to quit as Sunni militants rage on

Dubai/Ankara: Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected calls to relinquish power and allow formation of a national salvation government to counter Sunni militants seeking to break up the country.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Maliki called the demands a coup against the constitution and the political process. He vowed to pursue the fight against militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who have seized the country’s biggest northern city of Mosul and other towns this month.

Maliki has come under increasing pressure from Iraqi politicians to stand aside as a first step to presenting a unified front in the face of ISIL’s advance. Opponents like the former prime minister Ayad Allawi and factions of his own Shiite support have called on him to step down. The US secretary of state John Kerry, who visited Iraq this week, has urged the country’s leaders to form inclusive government.

“Maliki’s refusal to form a salvation government signals the collapse of hopes to break up the alliance of Sunni tribes with ISIL by offering them a say in a new government,” Nihat Ali Ozcan, analyst with Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara, said by phone. Maliki’s unrelenting stance not only shuts the door to a political solution but may also accelerate Iraq’s disintegration.

Parliament deadline

“Gunmen on Wednesday seized a small oil field, Ajeel, in northern Iraq,” Iraqi police said in a statement. The attack came two days after government forces said they had regained control of the key oil refinery of Baiji. Iraqi warplanes continued to shell the vicinity of Baiji refinery late on Tuesday in a strike that left 16 civilians dead and 30 others wounded in a residential area, according to a statement from police.

The US says sectarian divisions have helped ISIL, an al Qaeda splinter group, consolidate its control over areas of Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer.

Maliki’s opponents have accused him of sidelining the country’s Sunni minority and the Kurds. Maliki has repeatedly denied that his policies alienated Sunnis, who had dominated Iraq’s government before the 2003 US invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Even before ISIL seized control of Mosul on 10 June, Maliki was already struggling to form a government following inconclusive parliamentary elections in April. Maliki’s State of Law bloc won 92 of the 328 seats. The Kurds gained 62, while Sunnis won at least 33.

1 July is the deadline under the Iraqi constitution for Maliki to convene newly elected parliament. After that, the parliament has six weeks to name a president and prime minister. Four years ago, the process dragged on for eight months.

Turkey worried

The fighting is prompting increasing concerns among Iraq’s neighbours such as Turkey. More than 9,000 Turkish workers have left Iraq over the past 10 days, the Turkish state-run Anadolu agency said on Wednesday. ISIL militants in Iraq have held 80 Turks hostage since a 11 June raid on Turkey’s consulate in Mosul.

Kurdistan regional government’s prime minister Nechirvan Barzani was expected to meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday to discuss Iraq. Bloomberg