BAGHDAD | Iraq’s president is going to the country’s federal court to try to stop Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from establishing tribal councils - a move that major political parties fear is aimed at bolstering the Shi’ite leader’s stature ahead of elections next year.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and his Sunni and Shi’ite deputies have publicly criticized Mr. al-Maliki over the councils, which the prime minister insists are aimed at supporting government security forces. So far, Mr. al-Maliki has ignored the critics.
“Nouri al-Maliki is my friend and enjoys the confidence of parliament,” Mr. Talabani said Monday in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. “He is not budging and remains adamant that creating these councils is legal. We will go to the federal court to see whether this is indeed the case.”
The dispute between Mr. al-Maliki and Mr. Talabani points to the enduring rivalries between Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian factions as the country struggles to recover from years of violence.
The prime minister began establishing these councils last winter. They are supposed to work for reconciliation between tribes and religious sects, help displaced families return home, advise local governments on reconstruction projects, help Sunni volunteers receive jobs in the Iraqi security forces and create social programs in their areas.
In a message last month to Mr. Talabani, Mr. al-Maliki said the councils were part of the government’s security system “which is still fragile because of the remaining terrorist ’sleeper cells’ and outlaws.”
Mr. al-Maliki said that anyone using the councils to promote the prime minister’s political party would be fired. The message was released by the prime minister’s office Wednesday.
But the government has provided the councils with a lot of money. Critics see them as nothing more than a patronage system helping Mr. al-Maliki shore up his political support at the expense of other parties, including his own coalition partners.
On Monday, Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region took the unusual step of publicly chastising Mr. al-Maliki, accusing him in a 10-page statement of fomenting strife in areas where Kurdish claims of ownership are disputed by Arabs and others and of monopolizing power in a Dawa party clique of aides.
It said Mr. al-Maliki’s support councils in northern Iraqi areas claimed by the Kurds were causing instability, sowing divisions and undermining efforts for reconciliation.
A senior al-Maliki aide closely involved in the creation of the councils denied the Kurdish claims, saying the councils were not partisan or armed. The aide said none was created in Kurdish areas or in the Kirkuk region, an oil-rich swath of territory in northern Iraq that the Kurds want to annex to their region.
“We have 3,800 tribal sheiks in the councils and I dare them to produce a single one who can say we talked to him about supporting a certain party,” said the aide, Mohammed Salman. “Those who level accusations must produce proof.”
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