No sooner has Iraq's Sunni-backed Iraqiyya list called off the boycott of parliament and the cabinet it declared after an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi on 19 December than the Supreme Judicial Council – Iraq's highest court – threatened to derail the fragile political truce on 16 February by listing 150 attacks it claimed had been carried out since 2005 by death squads under Mr Hashimi's command. Moreover according to one of the nine Sunni, Shi'a, Kurdish and Turkmen judges on the Council – who remain anonymous for security reasons – "this is only the beginning. The investigation is ongoing and the number of crimes could reach 500." If that turns out to be the case, the issue of Mr Hashimi, who has taken refuge in the autonomous Kurdish region in the north of Iraq,  could develop into a serious threat to the country's delicate political balance.

Charles Snow