BAGHDAD: Kurdish leader Massud Barzani sharply criticised Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in a speech on Tuesday, alleging he was monopolising power and building an army loyal only to him.
Barzani said the partnership that built a national unity government formed at a meeting he had hosted was now "completely non-existent and has become meaningless."
"There is an attempt to establish a one-million strong army whose loyalty is only to a single person," Barzani, president of Kurdistan, said in Arbil, according to an English transcript of the speech.
"Where in the world can the same person be the prime minister, the chief of staff of the armed forces, the minister of defence, the minister of interior, the chief of intelligence and the head of the national security council?"
Barzani said that, while he was committed to an alliance with Iraq's majority Shiites, he was not committed to one with Maliki.
His remarks have dramatically raised the rhetoric between Barzani's autonomous regional government in Arbil and the central government in Baghdad, with several key disputes festering between the two sides.
Maliki has yet to appoint permanent ministers of defence and interior, more than two years after parliamentary elections.
Kurdish MPs form nearly a fifth of the seats in Iraq's parliament, and Barzani's Kurdish Alliance bloc holds five cabinet posts in the national unity government formed in November 2010.
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