Iraq’s PM refuses proposal that his Deputy, Mutlaq, appointed as Acting Defense Minister

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq ’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has rejected a proposal that his Deputy for Services Affairs, Saleh al-Mutlaq, be assigned for the post of Acting Defense Minister, whilst a leader of al-Iraqiya Coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, has announced the halting of negotiations between his Coalition and Maliki’s State of Law Coalition .   “Al-Iraqiya Coalition and other Iraqi parties have raised a proposal for Maliki, for the appointment of Deputy Prime Minister for Services Affairs and the leader in al-Iraqiya Coalition, Saleh al-Mutlaq, to be assigned for the post of Acting Defense Minister, similar to the decision to assign Maliki’s National Security Advisor, Faleh al-Fayadh, the leader in his National Coalition, for the post of National Security Minister, but Maliki had refused the proposal,” al-Hayat newspaper quoted its sources as saying.   On his part, the Leader in al-Iraqiya Coalition, Hamed al-Mutlaq, told al-Hayat newspaper that “negotiations with the State of Law have stopped and no serious meeting was held between members of the committee, formed between both sides last week, that was scheduled to present its proposals to the meeting of the political forces next Saturday.   “Al-Iraqiya Coalition has reached a convincement that the State of Law Coalition had been fooling the political forces and trying to keep its authority, away from the participation of other political forces in the authority,” Mutlaq said.   He said that “the remaining of the security cabinet ministries, including the defense ministry, which is the share of al-Iraqiya Coalition, under Prime Minister Maliki’s hands, had been part of the above decision.”   The differences between the State of Law Coalition , led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and al-Iraqiya Coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, are concentrated on the implementation of the Arbil Agreement, including the promulgation of the draft-law on the National Council for Strategic Policies (NCSP) and the mechanism of assigning the Council’s Chairman.   SKH (FT)