No right for Salah al-Din province to declare a region – Maliki

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Salah al-Din province has no right to declare itself a region, despite its requests declaring as much, Premier Nouri al-Maliki announced today. In a TV interview by semi-official Iraqiya station, he confirmed that federalism is a constitutional question. In the first governmental reaction, after two days of proclaiming Salah al-Din province a region, he charged it as “a safe center for Baathists.” He added that the provincial council has the right to request the Cabinet, then to be referred to the Parliament in addition to other constitutional procedures. Salah al-Din provincial council voted by 20 votes for the region status, out of 28 members. The  decision of the province came as a reaction to the arrest of a number of the province’s population as ex-Baathists and military officers, in addition to demoting 140 professors and university personnel. Earlier, an al-Iraqiya Bloc MP referred to the decision announced by Salah al-Din as unwanted. RM (TS)/SR 69