Maliki warns rival Allawi over Baath party links as two members withdraw from Allawi bloc

.Above: The major players -- Nuri al-Maliki (Prime Minister, Shiite), Tariq al-Hashemi (one of two Vice Presidents, Sunni), Moqtada al-Sadr ('fiery' anti-American cleric, Shiite), Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim (head of the largest Shiite coalition), Jalal Talabani (President of Iraq, Kurd, Qadiri Sufi sect of Sunnism), and Massoud Barzani (President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Naqshbandi Sufi sect of Sunnisim). The largest Sunni bloc recently returned to parliament after Mahmud Mashhadani was reinstated as speaker, but has withdrawn its cabinet ministers from Maliki's cabinet. Sadr's parliamentary bloc also returned recently to the legislature following a protest of the most recent bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, but also withdrew from the cabinet in April. Sadr recently announced a suspension of militia activies by his Mahdi Army following clashes in Karbala which left over 50 dead. Maliki recently announced a new coalition involving al-Hakim and Talabani, but noticeably lacking Sunnis. Left: Ayad Allawi after addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Allawi was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq prior to the 2005 legislative elections. He has been working to form a new coalition, with the goal of replacing Maliki as Prime Minister.

Maliki warns rival Allawi over Baath party links

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned potential rival Iyad Allawi on Wednesday that links to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party would be "dangerous" for his political future.

Allawi is a secular Shi'ite who led Iraq's first government after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam and has positioned himself as a potential successor to Maliki, whose shaky coalition government has been paralysed by sectarian infighting.

In a rare public attack on a political rival, Shi'ite Maliki rounded on Allawi after reports he had helped arrange recent talks between U.S. officials and former Baath party members...

"I am astonished at the behaviour of brother Iyad Allawi. What does brother Allawi want, does he want to bring back the Baath party to Iraq?" Maliki told a news conference.

"I advise Allawi to stop doing such things because it is dangerous for his political future."

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

Two lawmakers withdraw from the block headed by former premier Allawi

Two prominent lawmakers announced Wednesday they were leaving the parliamentary bloc led by Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein prime minister, saying their move was in protest of the "dictatorship" of Ayad Allawi and his contacts with the former president's supporters in the insurgency.

Hajim al-Hasani and Safiya Al-Suhail told a news conference that Allawi, a secular Shiite, has recently been making decisions without first consulting with members of his Iraqi List block, which has 44 of parliament's 275 seats.

"The decision-making mechanism in the bloc lacks democracy. We have not been consulted. They were coming from Amman" where Allawi spends much of his time, said al-Suhail, a Shiite whose father was killed in 1994 by suspected Saddam agents.

"They are decisions by remote control," she said.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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