BAGHDAD—In his weekly televised address Iraq’s outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the demands of some parties for joining a new government unconstitutional, but he said it was vital that all parties participated in the government.
“We have listened to all parties and received the demands of some,” said Maliki. “The demands of some of them are against the constitution while others are possible to meet.”
Maliki said that the participation of all Iraqi groups in the new government was vital.
“Our priority as the State of Law is the participation of all groups in the government, and this should be facilitated.”
Maliki himself was forced to resign as prime minister earlier this month by President Fuad Masum.
A member of the Dawa Party, Haider al-Abadi, has since been tasked with forming a new government almost five months since the country’s parliamentary polls.
The Kurds are for their part involved in negotiations with their Iraqi counterparts.
Fryad Rawandzi, the spokesman for the Kurdish negotiators in Baghdad told Rudaw that the issue of Kurdistan’s budget has been discussed with the Shiite parties in the initial round of talks and that the Kurds demand a lasting solution.
“The Kurds don’t want this issue solved as some kind of initiative,” said Rawandzi. “We can’t accept that.”
“A grassroots solution has to be reached for this dispute,” he added.
Rawandzi was optimistic that Baghdad would unfreeze the salaries of some Kurdish ministries in the coming days, saying, “Tomorrow we expect to have good news for the people of Kurdistan.
On Monday, Tariq Gerdi, the representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the negotiations said that Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish had negotiators agreed on the leadership of all parliamentary committees.
After months of political turmoil and conflict in Iraq’s Sunni regions, Kurdish parliamentarians and other political delegates returned to Baghdad last week to negotiate the Kurds’ participation in a new Iraqi government.
“As Kurds, we will get the parliamentary committees for oil and gas, foreign relations, higher education, health and the provinces,” said Gerdi, who met with the Sunni parliament speaker, Salim al-Jibouri, together with his Iraqi and Kurdish counterparts.
Kurdish leaders have set full partnership in Iraq and implementation of the constitution as precondition for joining the government in Baghdad and staying with Iraq.
In an indirect reference to US Vice President’s recent comment about a three-region solution for Iraq, Maliki said, “Federal regions cannot be built on sectarian basis because this will lead to the disintegration of Iraq.”
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