Iraqi PM failed his country, US says
Iraq's embattled prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has failed his country in many ways but a new military response won't fix the deeply troubled country, US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel says.
Secretary Hagel also said on Monday he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin miscalculated world reaction when he backed separatists in the Ukraine.
In Australia for high level talks with the federal government, along with Secretary of State John Kerry, Mr Hagel was asked if he could recall a more dangerous time in the Middle East.
"No, I cannot," he told the ABC.
"It is as unpredictable, dangerous, complicated as it's ever been.
"This is why a military solution is not going to end it or fix it."
Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on Sunday announced he would sue the president in what is being perceived as a desperate bid to cling to power.
He ordered security forces to be deployed across Baghdad even as violence raged in the north of the country.
Al-Maliki's shock announcement came after three days of US strikes against jihadist militants and in spite of mounting calls for him to step aside.
Mr Hagel said al-Maliki needs to take responsibility for "in many ways failing" his country.
"When the US transitioned out of Iraq, the constitution was clear in Iraq ... it was always to be a unity government," he said.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Kerry urged al-Maliki not to stir up trouble.
"There will be little international support for anything whatsoever that deviates form the legitimate constitutional process that's in place and is being worked on now," he said.
Mr Hagel also said Mr Putin miscalculated his recent actions in the Ukraine.
"What he continues to do is isolate Russia form the rest of the world, and then heighten the tensions and the danger.
"It's brought on and will continue to bring on economic disaster for the people."
"The jarring gong of what he did and what he continues to do in and around Ukraine has galvanised NATO nation's like nothing we have seen in 25 years."
