In an interview with international daily Az-Zaman, Mr. Tariq Hashemi, Iraq’s vice-president, called the political process in Iraq is dying and said the solution lies in early elections.

Answering to the question whether he believed the political process in Iraq had reached a dead-end, Hashemi said: “Yes, the political process is dying and to rescue it, specific effort is needed and the solution is to revise the principles that this political process is based on; national criterion should be considered instead of religious and ethnic criterion, and to this end a social covenant with international guarantees must be made.”

Iraqi vice-president added, ” the Iranian regime continues to support terrorist militias in this country to maintain violence in Iraq.”

” Al-Maliki has turned Iraqi Army into the Dawa party militias and supports the ministers accused of corruption,” said Hashemi.