- BAGHDAD: Iraq’s prime minister urged the Kurdish authorities in the north of the country to hand over the vice president accused of running hit squads that targeted government officials, saying he must face justice.
The comments by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki during a news conference Wednesday sharpened the divisions in what is shaping up to be one of the most serious political confrontations in Iraq in years. The arrest warrant against Tariq Al-Hashemi came just one day after US troops pulled out of Iraq.
“I do not allow myself and others to bargain over Iraqi blood,” Al-Maliki said.
He said Iraq is a unified country and the Kurdish authorities should hand over Al-Hashemi to the Iraqi justice system.
“If they will not hand him over or let him flee or escape, this will lead to problems,” the premier said.
Al-Hashemi has denied charges that he paid his bodyguards to kill government officials during the heyday of Iraq’s insurgency. He left for the Kurdish region on Sunday, before the arrest warrant was announced and before purported confessions from his bodyguards aired on Iraqi television Monday evening.
The three provinces that make up the Kurdish region are part of Iraq, but the Kurds have their own security forces and Iraqi Army and national police do not operate there.
The charges against a high-profile official by the government have thrown Iraq into crisis just days after US troops left the country.
During a news conference in the northern city of Irbil on Tuesday, Al-Hashemi described the case against him as “fabricated” to embarrass him and his political party, the Iraqiya.
