National Consensus to reject PM Maliki’s candidates for Iraqi security cabinet posts, MP says.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Legislature of al-Iraqiya Coalition, Shakir Kattab, has said on Saturday that “there was a national consensus on rejecting the candidates of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the security cabinet posts,” adding that there was no possibility for an agreement on those candidates inside the Parliament.   “There are many parties, supporting al-Iraqiya’s position, rejecting al-Maliki’s candidates for the cabinet’s security posts, among them some of his own National Coalition, because such nomination did not gain support by other political blocs,” Kattab told IraqiNews.com news agency.   Kattab also said he did not expect “the approval for the Prime Minister’s candidates for those posts by the Parliament, unless if they were imposed by force!”   “The nomination of security cabinet posts has taken place away from the framework of the national consensus between al-Iraqiya and the State of Law Coalitions, apart from fact that the defense minister’s post is our share and not the share of the Centre or the State of Law Coalitions, along with the fact that we have the right to announce our viewpoint about the candidates of the interior and national security ministries, towards which no understanding exists,” Kattab said.   He said that his al-Iraqiya Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, “would present its candidates for the defense minister’s post and we shall demand the Prime Minister to select one of them,” adding that the State of Law Coalition, led by Nouri al-Maliki, did not say anything about that.”   Kattab had also expressed conviction that the settlement of the security ministries dossier would be achieved soon, saying that “the current government is weak and unstable, as it has failed to take necessary measures amid the deterioration of the security and political conditions.”   Kattab, the spokesman for al-Iraqiya Coalition had stated to IraqiNews.com on Friday night that his Coalition had rejected the Prime Minister’s candidates for the security cabinet posts.   Noteworthy is that the Iraqi Parliament on 21/12/201 had granted trust for the government program of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cabinet posts, after a 9-month conflict that followed Iraq’s nationwide elections on March 9, 2010.   Maliki’s cabinet had comprised 41 ministers, whilst he had kept the posts of Interior and Defense Ministers under him on “acting” basis, along with assigning a number of cabinet posts also on “acting” basis for a number of personalities, pending the final agreement to name the original ministers.   SKH (FT)