Iraq ministers mull response to bloody power protests

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BAGHDAD, June 22 (AFP): Iraq's cabinet was meeting Tuesday to thrash out a response to bloody protests over power rationing that have prompted fears of a summer of discontent and an offer to resign from the electricity minister.
A wave of violent demonstrations has swept cities across central and southern Iraq, leaving one protester dead and two wounded along with 17 police officers as temperatures topped 51 degrees Celsius (124 degrees Fahrenheit).
Electricity Minister Karim Wahid, an independent considered close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, has been the focus of much of the public anger, with demonstrators carrying placards demanding his dismissal over rationing which sees Iraqis receiving power for one hour in five, or less.
Al-Bayan newspaper of Maliki's Dawa party said Wahid had tendered his resignation at the prime minister's request.
But late on Monday government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh insisted Maliki would take no decision on whether to accept it until after the cabinet meeting.
"The council of ministers will discuss Karim Wahid's offer to resign on Tuesday morning," Dabbagh told AFP.
In his resignation announcement on state television late on Monday, Wahid said he was placing his future in Maliki's hands. "I am ready to do whatever the prime minister wants me to do in order to serve the Iraqi people," he said.
Wahid charged that the demonstrations which have swept central and southern Iraq had been "politicised" in a way that was damaging to resolving power generation problems.
"In the difficult circumstances that Iraq is going through, politicising the issue will not solve it, it will complicate it," the minister said.