adminIraq’s powerful Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called for a national emergency government, a day after Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, rejected any attempts to challenge his rule.Sadr, whose movement, the Mahdi army, has vowed to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, on Wednesday said that the Iraqi government “must fulfil the legitimate demands of the moderate Sunnis and stop excluding them because they have been marginalised”.
The cleric demanded “new faces” in a national unity government following April 30 elections that saw Maliki emerge with by far the most seats, albeit short of a majority.
“We also need to rush the formation of a national government with new names and from all backgrounds and not to be based on the usual sectarian quotas,” he said in a televised address.
“I call upon all Iraqis to stop fighting and terrorising the civilians, the Iraqi government must fulfil the legitimate demands of the moderate Sunnis and stop excluding them because they have been marginalised.”
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said that the comments effectively said that Sadr wanted to get rid of Maliki and choose a new government. “These comments are strong and will be noticed,” he said, adding they showed a “huge rift” between what Maliki wants and what others believe.
“But Maliki insists that he is the only one that can lead Iraq out of this crisis. July 1st will be a big test for him politically. That’s when parliament are due to meet, and they’ll discuss the formation of the new government.” Sadr promised his fighters would “shake the ground under the feet of ignorance and extremism”.
Sadr’s remarks came days after fighters loyal to him paraded with weapons in the Sadr City area of north Baghdad, promising to fight the offensive by the fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Maliki ruled out a unity government on Wednesday.
ISIL and associated groups have overrun swaths of several provinces, killed nearly 1,100 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and threaten to tear the country apart.
Barack Obama, the US president, has so far refrained from carrying out air strikes on the rebels, as urged by Maliki, but American military advisers began meeting Iraqi commanders on Wednesday, with Washington having offered up to 300.
Washington has pressed for Iraq’s fractious political leaders to unite in a national emergency government, and on Wednesday brushed off Maliki’s insistence that such a move would be a “coup against the constitution and the political process”.
Washington has stopped short of calling for Maliki to go, but has left little doubt it feels he has squandered the opportunity to rebuild Iraq since American troops withdrew in 2011. — Al Jazeera
Online Reporter