BANGOR, ME – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, released the following statement today in response to news that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will resign:

“I welcome Prime Minister Maliki’s decision to step aside and clear the way for Haider al-Abadi to form Iraq’s next government. If Iraq is to have any hope of surviving as a multi-ethnic democracy, its central government must represent the interests of all Iraqis, regardless of ethnic or religious background, and reject the negative sectarian divisions that have plagued the country,” Senator King said. “Moving forward, it is critically important that Prime Minister-designate Abadi form a government that can lead Iraq in an inclusive way and be considered as legitimate by the vast majority of Iraqis. This will be especially important in the Iraqi government’s efforts to defeat ISIL, whose success to this point has been partially enabled by disenfranchised Sunni Iraqis who have found their interests more aligned with the ISIL extremists than with the central government in Baghdad.”

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