PM Maliki given two weeks to implement Erbil agreement

05/05/2012 10:28
BAGHDAD, May 5 (AKnews) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been given only two weeks to implement the demands raised in the meeting of five Iraqi and Kurdistan leaders in Erbil on Saturday.

A week ago Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani met with Iraqiya List leaders Ayad Allawi and Osama al-Nujaifi as well as Sadrist Movement leader Muqtada Sadr in Erbil.

The leaders discussed the challenges the country is facing and agreed on their demands in a letter which was handed yesterday to Ibrahim Jaafari, the head of the largest bloc, the National Alliance (NA).

The letter Maliki received from Jaafari does not express Sadr's view but expresses the decisions of the Erbil meeting, said Sadrist MP Amir Kinani.

Kinani said the letter recommends "specifically… commitment to enforcement of the unimplemented articles of the Erbil agreement within 15 days".

The Erbil agreement, hailed as a positive step, proved very challenging in the end. Though it ended the nine-month government formation impasse, it created tension between Maliki's State of Law Coalition (SLC) and Allawi's Iraqiya List, the election rivals.

The most obvious violation of the Erbil agreement, Kinani said, is that so far the security ministries have not been assigned ministers.

The Sadrist MP said there should be a plan for executing the decisions of the Erbil agreement.

"For instance, the blocs should be asked to name their candidates and within a week the House of Representatives should grant them a vote of confidence… if Maliki has an honest and serious intention [to solve the issues]."

Under the Erbil agreement, Allawi was also promised the headship of a National Council for Strategic Policies in turn for his compromise over the PM post in favor of Maliki. But the council has never been formed.

Kinani said the letter also accentuates the importance of the national conference for the political leaders and the urgency to comply with its decisions as well as the Iraqi constitution, which identifies the form of the government, the relations of the three authorities and the independence of the court.

The national conference was called by Talabani months ago after Iraqiya MPs and officials boycotted sessions of the House of Representatives and Council of Ministers and an arrest order was issued for Tareq Hashemi, Iraqiya leader and Iraq's vice president, over terrorism charges.

Representatives of the major parties have been divided over the agenda of the conference for some time now. Iraqiya later announced it will not attend the conference and the Shiite dominated NA was allowed to draft the agenda alone.

Two days ago the NA handed the agenda to Talabani. This was followed by a call from Maliki for Iraqiya List to attend the conference. The PM promised to fulfill all of Iraqiya's demands.

Iraqiya expects, among others, the PM to comply with the stipulations of the Erbil agreement. Iraqiya also complained about the persecution of its members by security services.

Iraqiya said yesterday it will only attend the national conference if Talabani gives the party guarantees for the implementation of the Erbil agreement.

http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/305287/