BAGHDAD – A fugitive vice president condemned to death and rallying opposition to Iraq's “sectarian" prime minister, fresh bloodshed in the streets and the entire Middle East – Nuri Al-Maliki has no easy task in holding his government, and his nation, together. The Iraqi premier was denounced Monday by Sunni Muslim Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi as a conspirator and oppressor, in league with fellow Shi'ites in Iran and driven by religious hatred to engineer the death sentence handed down on Hashemi Sunday for murders committed by sectarian death squads. The verdict against a mainstream leader of Iraq's once dominant Sunni minority was accompanied by bombings and attacks on Shi'ite targets that killed about 115, making it one of the bloodiest days since US troops pulled out in December. Maliki's government was quick to blame Sunni insurgents. Hashemi, speaking from exile in Turkey, called for “calm" but firm opposition to a premier whose efforts to stitch together an administration uniting Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds have looked distinctly ragged since an arrest warrant for the vice president was issued the very day after the Americans left. “Yesterday Prime Minister Maliki and his ... judiciary concluded the final phase of the theatrical campaign against me using a kangaroo court," Hashemi told a news conference in Ankara. “My people, don't give Maliki and those who stand behind him the chance ... They want to make this a sectarian conflict. “Oppose his conspiracies and provocation calmly." For many Iraqi Sunni leaders, the Hashemi case was a clear example of political manipulation of the judiciary by a Shi'ite leader who they say controls the security forces by keeping a personal grip on the vital defense and interior ministries. Since the fall of Saddam nine years ago and the rise of Shi'ite leaders in US-sponsored elections, many Iraqi Sunnis feel they have been sidelined. Sunni politicians accuse Maliki of failing to fulfill US-backed deals to share power, a charge Maliki's backers dismiss, pointing to Sunnis in key posts. But Maliki has shown himself to be a tough adversary. A former Arabic teacher who worked his way up the ranks of the Shi'ite Islamist Dawa party, he has proved adept at playing Iraq's political factions against one another, and maintaining a tricky balance in regional diplomacy. After Hashemi fled the country earlier this year, Maliki survived a short-lived boycott of parliament and the cabinet by the Sunni-backed Iraqiya party, which ended up more fractured and eventually strengthened the Shi'ite leader's hand. Iraq authorities quickly blamed Sunni insurgents seeking “sectarian pursuits and sedition" for Sunday's attacks that hit security forces and cafes and mosques in Shi'ite districts. No group claimed responsibility, but though violence is far from the peak seen in 2006-07, Iraqi security forces are still battling a lethal mix of fighters, including a local Al-Qaeda wing and former members of Saddam's Baath party. While weakened by years of fighting the US forces, security analysts say Al-Qaeda's local wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, has begun to benefit from funds and morale as fighters have been crossing into neighboring Syria to fight. “The terrorists may be trying to exacerbate any inter-communal tensions," said John Drake, a security analyst with AKE Group consultancy. “It doesn't show that the terrorists are in league with Hashemi, but it is very likely that they are trying to capitalize on the sectarian sensitivity of his case." The insurgents aim to capitalize on broader disaffection among Iraqis impatient with government failures to restore basic services, more than nine years after the US invasion. – Reuters
