© ReutersMembers of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc say Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, is consolidating power
Iraq's Shia-led government has issued an arrest warrant for Tareq al-Hashimi, the country's vice-president and highest ranking Sunni official, on "terrorism" charges.
Adil Daham, spokesman for Iraq's interior ministry, told reporters about the warrant on Monday and state-run television aired what it characterised as confessions by alleged "terrorists" linked to Hashimi.
The move, a day after the last US combat troops left Iraq and ended the nearly nine-year war, signalled a sharp new escalation in sectarian tensions that drove Iraq to the brink of civil war just a few years ago.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated Baath party, the Sunni minority has constantly complained of attempts by the Shia majority to sideline them.
Hashimi is one of the leaders of the Sunni-backed political bloc Iraqiya, which has just suspended its participation in parliament to protest the control of key posts by Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia prime minister.
Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh, reporting from Baghdad, described the recent events as a "political crisis".
"The government says this has nothing to do with the US withdrawal, that this has nothing to do with the prime minister consolidating his grip on power," our correspondent said.
"However, members of al-Iraqiya bloc, which Hashimi is a member of, say 'No, [Maliki] is trying to be a dictator'."
'Political targeting'
Lawmakers said on Sunday that parliamentary officials had received Maliki's request overnight for a vote of no confidence against Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni deputy prime minister and another leader of the Iraqiya bloc.
Mutlaq is Iraq's second most-senior Sunni politicians, after Hashimi. The Iraqiya bloc is a secular group backed by many Sunnis, which joined Maliki's unity government only reluctantly and has long complained of being marginalised.
"The prime minister told us that he cannot work with Mutlaq any more.... If this will affect the work and the performance of the cabinet then we will be with him," said Amir al-Kinani, a lawmaker from a Shia bloc.
Iraqiya lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani accused Maliki's authorities of carrying out "political targeting", using the security forces and justice system against political opponents.
"There must be a way of dealing with these issues, without replacing the celebration of the US withdrawal with the politicisation of security matters to target political rivals," he told the Reuters news agency.
Unravelling politics
Iraqiya narrowly won the most seats in last year's parliamentary election, but Allawi was outmanoeuvred by Maliki, who kept the premier's post after cobbling together key support from Shia parties.
For more than a year now, Maliki has effectively controlled the interior and defense ministries, which oversee the police and military, while conflicts between Sunni and Shia politicians have delayed the appointment of permanent ministers.
The dispute is a reminder that the US left behind an Iraq still rife with sectarian division. Iraqiya officials have warned they could take a further step if the bloc's demands are not met, pulling their seven ministers out of Maliki's coalition government.
According to our correspondent, the threat of a cabinet walkout has many Iraqis concerned the country is returning to a phase of political impasse.
"If that step is taken, this fragile government will be brought to a standstill. The people on the street fear this because it will affect their daily lives," he said.
In the last years of the US presence, Washington worked hard to keep Sunnis inside the political process to prevent it from unravelling.
Iraq's power-sharing government splits the presidency, the prime minister's post, two vice-presidencies and two deputy
premierships among Shia, Sunni and Kurdish blocs. But Sunni politicians complain they are kept out of decision making.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Iraqiya criticised the "unjustified'' random arrests conducted by the government's security forces against Sunni areas.
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