Baghdad ( CNN ) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is amassing dictatorial power as U.S. troops leave the country , risking a new civil war and the breakup of the nation , his deputy warned Tuesday . Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq told CNN that he was `` shocked '' to hear U.S. President Barack Obama greet al-Maliki at the White House on Monday as `` the elected leader of a sovereign , self-reliant and democratic Iraq . '' He said Washington is leaving Iraq `` with a dictator '' who has ignored a power-sharing agreement , kept control of the country 's security forces and rounded up hundreds of people in recent weeks . `` America left Iraq with almost no infrastructure . The political process is going in a very wrong direction , going toward a dictatorship , '' he said . `` People are not going to accept that , and most likely they are going to ask for the division of the country . And this is going to be a disaster . Dividing the country is n't going to be smooth , because dividing the country is going to be a war before that and a war after that . '' Neighboring Iran views al-Maliki as its man in Baghdad and has dictated the shape of the current government , al-Mutlaq said . But he said al-Maliki is playing games with both Washington and Tehran . `` There will be a day whereby the Americans will realize that they were deceived by al-Maliki ... and they will regret that , '' he said . The last U.S. troops are scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of December , nearly nine years after the 2003 invasion that topped Saddam Hussein . More than 4,000 Americans and an estimated 115,000 Iraqis died in the invasion and the years of insurgency and sectarian warfare that followed . Al-Maliki won a second term as prime minister in 2010 after a months-long dispute among the leading parties in the country 's parliamentary elections . Al-Mutlaq 's largely secular Iraqiya movement won two more seats than al-Maliki 's party , but a merger of the premier 's Shiite Muslim slate with a smaller Shiite bloc put him first in line to form a government . The standoff raised fears of renewed bloodshed between Iraq 's majority Shiite and minority Sunni populations and prompted U.S. officials to work out a power-sharing agreement , bringing al-Mutlaq 's Iraqiya movement into the government . But al-Mutlaq -- a Sunni who was originally barred from running because of allegations that he supported Hussein 's Baath Party -- said he has no authority . He said al-Maliki has flouted the deal 's provisions by refusing to name permanent ministers to lead the defense and interior ministries , which concentrates control over the military and police in the prime minister 's hands . But quitting the government carries the risk of being branded as terrorists and arrested , he said . `` We are in a real problem now , '' he said . `` If we pull out of the government , he will be left to do what he wants to do , with us and with the others . '' He said U.S. officials , who brokered the power-sharing deal , either `` do n't know anything in Iraq and they do n't know what is happening in Iraq , or because they do n't want to admit the reality in Iraq , the failure in Iraq , the failure of this political process that they set in Iraq . ''
Iraq is `` going toward a dictatorship '' under al-Maliki , his deputy says . `` This is going to be a disaster , '' Saleh al-Mutlaq says . He said he was `` shocked '' to hear al-Maliki praised in Washington .