Maliki hints at another try for Iraqi prime minister

“I will never back down nominating myself as prime minister,” he said, according to the statement read on state-run Iraqiya TV. “No one has the right to place any conditions.”

Earlier in the day, a spokesman for al-Maliki denied a claim by Parliament’s caretaker speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi, that the Prime Minister had agreed not to seek another term in exchange for concessions from Nujaifi.

“Mr. al-Maliki has now realized that there is no way to be nominated for the position of prime minister. So he agreed … not to be nominated for the same post on condition of the withdrawal of my nomination for Parliament speaker,” Nujaifi said in a video statement posted on his Facebook page.