BAGHDAD // Iraq’s Kurdish minority on Thursday declared their politicians will boycott cabinet meetings, further fraying their already testy relationship with Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.
Authorities in Baghdad later said they were suspending all cargo flights to the largely autonomous northern Kurdish region.
The worsening political discord comes three days before a planned parliamentary session to form a new government to replace the caretaker government since April elections.
Ties between Mr Al Maliki and the Kurds have long been strained.
Both sides have for years squabbled over a range of issues, chief among them oil rights and land disputes. But they have also worked together before – the Kurds have twice provided critical support to help Mr Al Maliki secure the post of prime minster.
But the Sunni militant offensive led by the Islamic State extremist group that seized control of much of northern and western Iraq last month has seemingly altered the power dynamics.
The Kurds have taken advantage of the chaos to push into disputed territory, including the oil-rich area of Kirkuk, and are moving closer to a decades-old dream of independence.
Those moves have infuriated Mr Al Maliki, who on Wednesday accused the Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq of harbouring the Islamic State insurgents. The prime minister provided no evidence to support his claims, and the Kurds denied the allegations.
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Roz Nouri Shawez, the highest level Kurdish official in Al Maliki’s government, said “such statements are meant to hide the big security fiasco by blaming others, and we announce our boycott of cabinet meetings”.
Kurds also hold the cabinet posts for foreign affairs, trade, health and immigration and displacement.
The move is largely symbolic, since the government has continued operating in the past when the Sunni bloc fully withdrew its ministers from the cabinet. But it underlines the deepening split between Mr Al Maliki and the Kurds.
The Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani said Mr Al Maliki “has become hysterical and has lost his balance”.
“He is doing everything he can to justify his failures and put the blame on others for these failures,” the Kurdish region’s presidency said on its website late Wednesday. It accused Mr Al Maliki of destroying the country, and demanded that he step down.
Mr Al Maliki’s rivals, and even some former allies, accuse him of helping fuel the current crisis by failing to promote reconciliation with the country’s minority Sunnis, who complain of being treated as second-class citizens.
Mr Al Maliki, whose bloc won the most seats in April's elections, has refused to heed calls to step aside, and instead has vowed to pursue a third consecutive term. That has led to political deadlock as lawmakers attempt to form a new government that can hold the country together as it confronts the Sunni militants who have seized control of much of northern and western Iraq.
Late Thursday, Iraq’s civil aviation authority in Baghdad suspended all cargo flights to the Kurdish region until further notice. The head of the aviation authority, Nassir Bandar, said the decision was taken “due to the security situation and [events] in Mousl where it is not possible for us to handle shipments.”
He said passenger flights to the airports to the cities of Sulaimaniyah and Erbil in the Kurdish region will not be affected.
* Associated Press, with additional reporting from Agence France-Presse
