An Iraqi judicial committee has issued an arrest warrant for the mainly Shia Arab country’s Sunni Arab Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashemi.
The warrant was issued under anti-terrorism laws, interior ministry spokesman Adel Daham said.
The decision came after arrested bodyguards of Hashemi reportedly accused him of links to terrorism.
The main Sunni political bloc is reported to have said it will boycott the cabinet in response.
State-run television has aired what it says are confessions by alleged terrorists linked to Mr Hashemi.
Maj-Gen Adel Daham told a news conference that confessions by suspects identified as his bodyguards had linked him to killings and attacks on several Iraqi government and security officials, Reuters news agency reports.
Hashemi has been banned from leaving Iraq and is reported to have flown to the semi-autonomous northern enclave of Kurdistan on Sunday night. But the BBC’s Middle East correspondent Jim Muir says he is unlikely to be arrested immediately. (BBC)