AP, Qalachwalan, Iraq, 23 Dec 2011 – The Sunni vice president wanted for allegedly running a hit squad in Iraq has accused Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of waging a campaign against Sunnis and pushing the country toward sectarian war.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Tariq al-Hashemi says al-Maliki wants to get rid of all political rivals and run Iraq like a ‘one-man-show.’Earlier this week, al-Maliki’s government issued an arrest warrant against al-Hashemi, accusing him of orchestrating assassinations.
Al-Hashemi denies the charges and is staying in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq, where the central government’s police do not operate.
The standoff has stoked tensions between Iraq’s Sunni minority and the Shiite majority that dominates the government.