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BAGHDAD (AP) — As the Iraqi government struggles to contain a Sunni insurgency, leaders in Baghdad and in Washington are questioning whether Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki should remain in office.
According to a Shiite lawmaker, political leaders in Baghdad have been meeting behind closed doors in recent days to discuss his future.
The Sunnis, along with many of al-Maliki's former Kurdish and Shiite allies, are hoping to deny him a third term in office. They charge that he has excluded them from decision-making.
In recent days, he's been using conciliatory language toward Sunnis and Kurds -- saying the militant threat affects all Iraqis regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation. But he isn't known to have made any concrete offers to bridge differences with the Sunnis or with the Kurds -- who have been at loggerheads with the prime minister over their right to independently export oil from their self-rule region in the north.
In Washington, President Barack Obama today called on Iraqi leaders to govern with a more "inclusive agenda" to ensure that the country doesn't descend into civil war.
%@AP Links
198-a-11-(President Barack Obama, in remarks)-"than through violence"-President Obama says Iraq's government must be more inclusive if the crisis is to end. (19 Jun 2014)
<<CUT *198 (06/19/14)££ 00:11 "than through violence"
199-a-13-(President Barack Obama, in remarks)-"through this crisis"-President Obama says Iraqi's leaders have to rise above their differences. (19 Jun 2014)
<<CUT *199 (06/19/14)££ 00:13 "through this crisis"
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