Crisis talks between political leaders set for Friday, a day after Iraq’s worst attacks in four months, were cancelled amid a worsening row that has seen its premier threaten to dissolve power-sharing. Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is wanted on charges of running a death squad, blamed the crisis on Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and accused the Iraqi leader of behaving like now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein. Maliki, meanwhile, has called for his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlak to be sacked, and the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, to which both Hashemi and Mutlak belong, has boycotted both parliament and the cabinet. Tensions were further heightened on Thursday, when insurgents carried out coordinated attacks in Baghdad that killed 60 people and wounded nearly 200, while violence elsewhere in the country claimed another seven lives. In an interview with the BBC’s Arabic Service, Hashemi blamed Maliki for starting “a national crisis, and it’s not easy to control.” “Iraqis have a right to be worried,” he added. Hashemi, who has denied the terror charges against him and is currently holed up in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, said Thursday’s attacks occurred because the authorities were too busy chasing “patriotic politicians”.
