A DEFIANT Nouri al Maliki has rejected calls for an interim national unity government in Iraq intended to undermine the Sunni insurgency, calling it a "coup against the constitution".
The Iraqi prime minister's televised address to the nation was his first public statement since US President Barack Obama challenged him last week to create a more inclusive government or risk his country descending into sectarian civil war.
US officials believe the leadership in Baghdad should seek to draw Sunni support away from the militants led by al Qaeda breakaway group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), which has seized a chunk of north-western Iraq and seeks to carve out a purist Islamic enclave across both sides of the country's border with Syria.
The insurgency has drawn support from disaffected Iraqi Sunnis who are angry over perceived mistreatment and random detentions by the Shiite- led government.
The crisis has drawn the US back to Iraq, nearly three years after the Americans withdrew from the country. Dozens of newly arrived US military advisers and special operations forces have started assessing the Iraqi forces in an effort to strengthen Baghdad's ability to confront the insurgency.
In the face of militant advances that have virtually erased Iraq's western border with Syria and captured territory on the frontier with Jordan, Mr Maliki's focus has been the defence of Baghdad, a majority Shiite city of seven million fraught with growing tension.
The city's Shiites fear they could be massacred and the revered al Kazimiyah shrine destroyed if Isis fighters capture Baghdad. Sunni residents also fear the extremists, as well as Shiite militiamen in the city, who they worry could turn against them.
Several politicians, including Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who has been named as a possible contender to replace Mr Maliki, have called on him to step down and form an interim government that could provide leadership until a more permanent solution can be found.
However, Mr Maliki insisted the political process must be allowed to proceed following recent national elections in which his bloc won the largest share of parliament seats.
"The call to form a national salvation government represents a coup against the constitution and the political process," he said, adding that "rebels against the constitution" - a thinly veiled reference to Sunni rivals - posed a more serious danger to Iraq than the militants.
He called on "political forces" to close ranks in the face of the growing threat by insurgents, but took no concrete steps to meet US demands for greater inclusion of minority Sunnis.
"We desperately need to take a comprehensive national stand to defeat terrorism, which is seeking to destroy our gains of democracy and freedom, set our differences aside and join efforts," said Mr Maliki.
"The danger facing Iraq requires all political groups to reconcile on the basis and principles of our constitutional democracy."
In fighting yesterday, Sunni militants launched a dawn raid on a key Iraqi oil refinery they have been trying to take for days, but security forces fought them back.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article