Iraqi List boycott continues until demands are met

[Stillw8n]

Iraqi List boycott continues until demands are met

01/01/2012 12:52

BAGHDAD, Jan.1 (AKnews)- Iraqiya List lawmakers and ministers will not end their boycott unless the Iraqi government fulfills the demands of the List, an Iraqiya leader said today.

It is almost two weeks that Iraqiya deputies have staged the boycott in protest to lack of “real” partnership in political process and what they described as “unilateral ruling.”

Hamed Mutlag told AKnews that Iraqiya List decided to boycott sessions of the House of Representatives and Council of Ministers over a host of issues which will be resolved in the expected meeting of political blocs’ leaders.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has called for an emergency national conference which will be held soon. In the meeting the political blocs are to find resolutions for the crisis created by recent tensions.

“If Iraqiya realizes that all the complications have taken the way to solution, then it will end its decision to suspend the sessions,” he said “but before this meeting, I don’t think that the List will end the boycott,” he said.

Tension escalated in Iraq after two Iraqiya leaders encountered critical situations. Vice President Tareq Hashemi has been accused of terrorism and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlag has been sacked after he described the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Maliki as “like a dictator”.

Hashemi said that the Iraqi judiciary is under the influence of the executive branch, and that his bodyguards’ confessions presented by the government were taken under torture and threats.

The VP has fled to Kurdistan, where the authorities consider him a guest and refuse to hand him over to Baghdad for trail. Hashemi has demanded Kurdistan courts attend to his case- but Baghdad has turned down the demand.

Mutlag also has refused to recognize the dismissal order which is subject the final approval of the House of Representatives.

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