Iraq's parliamentary speaker threatens to withdraw confidence in Al-Maliki

The Iraqi parliamentary speaker, Usama Al-Nujayfi, threatened on Thursday to withdraw confidence from Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, pointing out that “the parliament grants legitimacy to the Al-Maliki government… and can withdraw this legitimacy.”

Al-Nujayfi’s comments came in response to Al-Maliki’s accusations on Wednesday that Al-Nujayfi did not pass the budget and obstructed the decision of more than one hundred MPs in order to disable the government and sabotage its policies, following disputes over budget allocations to the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq.

Al-Maliki’s government accuses the Kurdistan regional government of covertly selling oil through Turkey. When the Iraqi cabinet ratified in mid-January the draft budget for the fiscal year 2014- 2015 and referred it to the parliament for approval, Kurdistan’s regional government refused the draft budget on the grounds that it threatened sanctions against them if they do not pay the government in Baghdad its share of oil imports.

The Iraqi government responded by refusing to pay the salaries of public employees in Kurdistan for three months.

Al-Nujayfi described Al-Maliki’s accusations as “a mere cover up” and “propaganda for the elections”. On his part, Al-Nujayfi accuses the premier of “pushing Iraq into a dark tunnel and igniting a crisis to cover up his government’s failure to calm the security situation in Al-Anbar province and the other provinces in the west of Iraq.”