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| Iraq |
| New vote on Iraq poll date ‘by Monday’ as Abadi meets Kurdistan region PM |
| 2018-01-21 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraq's parliament failed on Saturday to approve May 12 as the election date, as suggested by the government, as Sunni and Kurdish politicians demanded a delay to allow hundreds of thousands of war-displaced people to return home. Shi'ite politicians, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, insist on holding the election as planned on May 12, saying a delay would be against the constitution. Speaking after Saturday's session in Baghdad, Parliamentary Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, a Sunni, expressed hope that parliament would be able to vote on an election date by Monday, state TV reported. Abadi is seeking re-election, building on a surge in his popularity among Iraq's majority Shi'ite Arab community after leading the three-year fight against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... bully boys, supported by a U.S.-led coalition. "Postponing the elections would set a dangerous precedent, undermining the constitution and damaging Iraq’s long-term democratic development," the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said in a statement on Thursday. Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met on Saturday in Baghdad with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, a Kurdish official said. It is the first meeting between Abadi and a top leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) since conflict broke out between Baghdad and the region's authorities over a Kurdish independence referendum held in northern Iraq on Sept. 25. Washington had shown understanding for Abadi's move in October to dislodge Kurdish fighters from the oil rich northern region of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... even though the Kurds are traditional allies of the United States. Tens of thousands of Kurds were displaced as a result of the takeover of the ethnically mixed areas of Kirkuk and its surroundings by Iraqi forces supported by Iranian-backed paramilitary groups. |
| Posted by:Fred |