By Ahmed Rasheed
Reuters, 11 February 2008
BAGHDAD, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Iraq's government faces collapse unless lingering disputes over this year's budget can be resolved, the parliamentary speaker warned on Monday, after attempts to pass the bill broke down again.
On Sunday, Iraqi lawmakers said they had resolved a row over the budget allocations, particularly for the largely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, the main stumbling block to the $48 billion budget.
Iraqi officials have complained that failure to pass the budget was holding up vital spending at a time when the United States is urging the government to jumpstart the economy to take advantage of falls in violence in recent months.
But the long-running talks failed to reach resolution on Monday, prompting parliamentary speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani to warn lawmakers that the country faced a political crisis.
"If this situation continues, if parliament is not able to let the budget pass, then it is at a very dangerous point ... and this may lead to the collapse of the whole state," said Mashhadani, the first time he has spoken out on the issue.
Leaders of the various political blocs had indicated they had agreed a compromise package on Sunday. This would have allowed the budget and two other bills, one on provincial powers and one an amnesty law, to be passed together.
Washington says all are crucial for Iraq's stability.
Shi'ites want the provincial powers law, Sunnis want the amnesty law -- which would free thousands of mainly Sunni prisoners -- and Kurds want to pass the budget giving them 17 percent of allocations.
The other blocs say the Kurdish allocation is too large, and, lacking an accurate census, some lawmakers had argued that Kurdistan should get 12 percent, based on population estimates.
Mashhadani said disagreements meant there was still not enough support in parliament to get the laws passed.
"Our patience is consumed and we can't go any further," he said. "I appeal to the leaders of all parliamentary blocs to pay attention to this ... or we will enter into a vicious circle, and no one will be affected except the Iraqi citizens."
U.S. officials had praised the 2008 budget as well as a recent act allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to rejoin the government as evidence that Iraq's divided leaders were starting to make political progress.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday during a trip to Baghdad that Iraq's leaders "seem to have become energised in the last few weeks." Gates had been critical in the past of the lack of progress made by the Shi'ite-led government. (Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim; writing by Michael Holden; editing by Tim Pearce)
Citation: Ahmed Rasheed. "Iraqi govt faces collapse over budget row-speaker," Reuters, 11 February 2008.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11176715.htm