Iraqi Kurds frustrated with the federal government dream of independence for their autonomous region, but for now they just want widely disliked Nuri al-Maliki out of office, AFP reported on Tuesday, April 29th.
Maliki’s “policies against the Kurds were not good”, said Mohsen, 38, as he dusted off the sunglasses for sale in front of his shop in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
Instead, Mohsen wants a premier who “treats all of the (ethnic) components of the Iraqi people equally”.
Massud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, has frequently spoken out against Maliki, accusing him of monopolising power.
He has voiced fears Maliki would use F-16 jets ordered from the United States against the Kurds, and called for his removal from office.
“Maliki has not been beneficial for the Kurds or any Iraqis,” and it is time for a new prime minister, Tariq Jawhar, a Kurdish parliamentary candidate, told AFP.
Jawhar, from federal President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said the premier’s policies and government had raised tensions between Kurds and Arabs, and also between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.