Leading Iraqi lawmakers threaten vote of no confidence

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Leading Iraqi lawmakers threaten vote of no confidence

By Raheem Salman

BAGHDAD | Sat May 5, 2012 1:02pm EDT

(Reuters) - Four of the most senior political leaders in Iraq's fragile coalition have threatened to bring a vote of no confidence in the government unless "autocratic decision-making" stops, a letter published in a state newspaper on Saturday said.

Iraq's Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurd coalition began to creak in December, after U.S. troops left, when the government tried to remove Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq and issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.

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The four senior lawmakers - Osama al-Nujaifi, Masoud Barzani, Iyad Allawi and Moqtada al-Sadr - sent the letter to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bloc on Thursday, political sources told Reuters.

Some of Maliki's opponents, including Barzani and Sadr, have accused him of becoming a dictator and several of his critics say he deliberately sidelines Sunnis and Kurds.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/05/us-iraq-politics-idUSBRE84409I20120505

[demosincebirth]

1. Getting Maliki out would probably bring change for the better in Iraq. He's been in there

long enough and hasn't brought any change to that country.