http://www.juancole.com/2011/12/iraq-on-the-brink-court-forbids-vp-al-hashimi-from-leaving-iraq.html
The Iraqi equivalent of the supreme court issued an order Monday forbidding Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi from leaving Iraq, according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic. The order came on the heels of the issuance of a warrant against him, accusing the Sunni Arab politician of involvement in a bomb plot in the Green Zone aimed at assassinating PM Nouri al-Maliki. Hashimi’s office issued a press release Monday confirming that three members of his security detail had been arrested.
The Iraqiya Party (or National Iraqi Movement) to which al-Hashimi belongs holds 91 seats in a parliament of 325, and had been part of the national unity government cobbled together in November of 2010. Some 80% of Iraqi Sunni Arabs voted for Iraqiya in 2010, so that Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s attack on its leaders is viewed by many Iraqis as an assertion of a tyranny of the Shiite majority.
If it happens, the total withdrawal of the Iraqi National Movement from the government will not cause it to fall. First, al-Maliki still has a majority in parliament as long as the Kurds continue to stand with him (and they probably will). Second, the Iraqi system doesn’t seem to envision governments falling and snap elections being held, as happens in the UK and other parliamentary systems. The prime minister can lose majority of support, but continue till the next election as head of a minority government. In summer of 2007, al-Maliki lost the support of all the major parties but his own, but his government did not fall.
On the other hand, al-Maliki is in danger of provoking very bad relations between Shiites and Sunni Arabs. He not only is dragging the Sunni vice president before the courts as a common terrorist, but he is trying to strong-arm vice premier Saleh Mutlak out of office for complaining that al-Maliki has begun acting dictatorially and is becoming worse than Saddam.
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