BAGHDAD: Beleaguered Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki warned rivals on Wednesday against exploiting a Sunni militant onslaught for political gain and insisted that any new government must be based on an election he won.
His remarks came as US military advisers began meeting with Iraqi commanders combatting an offensive that has overrun swathes of five provinces, killed nearly 1,100 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and threatens to tear the country apart.
And while security forces continued to repel assaults on critical towns and infrastructure, fighters from Al-Qaeda's Syrian franchise, Al-Nusra Front, made a local alliance with the jihadist group leading the charge in Iraq, bolstering its offensive.
In apparent response to calls from Sunni tribal leaders to form a government that ignores the result of an April 30 election, which they describe as a sham, Maliki said that would be a "coup against the constitution and the political process".
The incumbent premier, whose bloc won by far the most seats in April, said such a move was "an attempt by those who are against the constitution to eliminate the young democratic process and steal the votes of the voters."
He warned against exploiting "what the country is facing in order to achieve political gains."
Though Washington has pressed for Iraq's fractious political leaders to unite in the face of the two-week campaign led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants group, they have shown little sign of coming together.
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