Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Iraq

Salih, ICP, Islamic Virtue Party discuss efforts to choose PM

2020-03-07

[THEBAGHDADPOST] As a part of his consultations and his meetings with the leaders of the political blocs and parties, President Barham Salih met in Baghdad with the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), Raid Fahmi and Secretary-General of the Islamic Virtue Party, Abd al-Hussein al Musawi.

Together, they discussed efforts being exerted to pick a new Prime Minister who would be acceptable to the Iraqi people.

Constitutional context and timings which set forth in the constitution are considered as fundamental, they also highlighted.

All sides confirmed that it would be necessary to form an interim Government working to meet entitlement reform in addition to create conditions for holding free and fair elections which reflect Iraqis' will and aspirations for having a free and decent life.

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Iraq

Allawi reaches out to his rivals

2010-03-28

The leader of the secular alliance that narrowly won Iraq's parliamentary election has offered to work with all parties to form a coalition government. Iyad Allawi said his Iraqiya bloc would start by talking with the rival State of Law alliance of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, which it beat by two seats.

Mr Maliki has refused to accept the result and said he would challenge the count through the courts.

Both the UN and US envoys to Iraq have said the 7 March poll was credible. There is concern that a challenge to the result could be lengthy and divisive, endangering progress towards greater stability.

According to final results published by Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), Mr Allawi's secular Iraqiya bloc won 91 of the Council of Representative's 325 seats, 72 short of a majority. Mr Maliki's State of Law came second with 89 seats, followed by the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) on 70, and the Kurdistan Alliance with 43.

Iraqiya's narrow victory means Mr Allawi, a Shia, will be given the first opportunity to form a coalition government. If he fails to do so within 30 days, Iraq's president will ask the leader of another bloc.

On Saturday, the former prime minister said he had already appointed Deputy Prime Minister Rafi al-Issawi, a Sunni member of his alliance, to begin negotiations with other parties in the hope of forming a government "as quickly as possible".

"The Iraqi people have blessed the Iraqiya bloc by choosing it," he told a news conference. "We are open to all powers starting with the State of Law bloc of brother Prime Minister Nouri Maliki."

"Iraq does not belong to anyone or any party, but it belongs to all Iraqis," he added.

Mr Allawi said he was "working for a government that can make decisions and return Iraq back to its place in the Arab and Islamic world".

Magdi Abdelhadi, BBC Arab affairs analyst Iyad Allawi has clearly surprised many with such a forceful comeback. Iraqiya did not win by a big margin, but given the complex and fragmented nature of Iraqi politics, its small victory is still a considerable achievement - if it is not overturned by the courts as his rivals want. Much will now depend on how he navigates through many of the domestic and regional minefields ahead. The words he spoke struck all the right notes - inclusive and conciliatory towards his enemies both at home and abroad.

Knowing that his comeback will not be welcome in Iran, Mr Allawi must have had them in mind when he said stability in the Middle East was the responsibility of all its peoples, and not just the Americans. The US cannot stay here for ever to protect us, he warned.

If the transfer of power is completed peacefully, and Mr Allawi manages to reconcile the many competing interests, then some will conclude that Iraq's fledgling democracy appears to be coming of age.

Mr Maliki is reportedly also negotiating a merger with the INA, which includes followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, so he can claim to lead the biggest bloc in parliament. The groups had been part of the governing United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) before the election, but split acrimoniously.

Iraq's Supreme Court issued an opinion of Thursday specifying that a clause in the constitution referring to the "largest Council of Representatives bloc" could include an alliance formed after an election. The opinion, published in response to a query submitted by Mr Maliki, might allow State of Law and the INA to claim the right to form a government first. Together, they would hold 159 seats, four short of a majority.

Election officials have refused calls for a recount, and international observers have described the election as fair and credible.

"It is the UN's considered opinion that these elections have been credible and we congratulate the people of Iraq with this success," the top UN official in Iraq, Ad Melkert, told reporters on Friday.

The sentiment was echoed by US Ambassador Christopher Hill and the top US commander, Gen Ray Odierno, who praised the "historic electoral process" and said they backed the conclusions of observers that there had been no evidence of widespread or serious fraud.

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Iraq

Al Maliki Announces Break With Iraqi National Alliance

2009-09-26

[Asharq al-Aswat] Asharq Al-Awsat - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ended speculation surrounding his return to the Shia Iraqi National Alliance coalition by announcing that he will form his own 'State of Law' coalition soon. Al Maliki announced that he will contest the forthcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections [to be held in January 2010] by way of this coalition, and ruled out joining any other political coalitions.

The Iraqi National Alliance is a Shia-majority electoral coalition previously known as the United Iraqi Alliance. Al Maliki's Islamic Dawa party was previously a member of the United Iraqi Alliance and Nouri al Maliki came to power in the December 2005 elections under its banner.

During a question and answer session conducted with journalists through the National Media Center website, Iraqi Prime Minister al Maliki said that the process of forming his own State of Law coalition is ongoing, and stressed that "the door is open with regards to reaching agreements with other coalitions in order to reach an understanding, whether this is prior to- or following- the elections, but this does not mean [we will be] joining other coalitions."

Al Maliki clarified, "If a coalition wants to join the State of Law [coalition] then we will welcome it, so long as it takes up the standards and principles that we have adopted." Al Maliki also confirmed that he is in the process of forming a large [political] bloc "in order to protect the political process and activate the executive and legislative role in order to prevent the state of weakness that characterizes the current phase."

The Iraqi Prime Minister also told journalists that he intends to focus on "the principles of the National Project that has been adopted by the State of Law coalition to eliminate the obstacles that have accompanied the political process over the previous period."

Iraqi MP Sami al Askari, who has close ties to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki also revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that "the day the new Iraqi National Alliance was announced was like [the declaration of ] the end of genuine dialogue between the Dawa party and the Iraqi National Alliance." He added, "We stressed that if anybody rushed to announce the [formation of] the new alliance, that person would not be considered a founding member [of the coalition when it is officially established]."

Al Askari also told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the course of the dialogue between the State of Law coalition and the [Iraqi National] Alliance involved the latter putting pressure on al Maliki to convince him to catch up with it on a number of issues, as well as [attempting] to intimidate him by saying that he would lose the elections, and that his contesting of the elections individually would result in dividing the Shia vote. Other people [attempted] to intimidate al Maliki through Shia marjas [religious authorities] who do not believe the State of Law coalition to be [religiously] acceptable."

Link

Iraq

Iraqs Shiites create new alliance for election

2009-08-25

" I wish that our brothers in the Dawa party would be among us today and God willing, efforts will continue to include everyone, with Dawa at the top of the list "

Iraqi Vice President and ISCI member Adel Abdul-Mehdi

[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq's leading Shiite coalition, the biggest group in parliament, announced a new alliance on Monday for January's general election, while Abdel Aziz al-Hakim's son announced that the country's Shiite leader has been admitted to a Tehran hospital.

The grouping includes members of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), supporters of radical anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, as well as a large number of independent candidates.

The new Iraqi National Alliance will replace the United Iraqi Alliance, which was created for the 2005 election and which once consisted of all Shiite parties.

No reason was given publicly for the exclusion of Maliki's Dawa party but the increasingly assertive prime minister had demanded a greater say in the alliance and also insisted the coalition be broadened to include more Sunnis and Kurds. "I wish that our brothers in the Dawa party would be among us today and God willing, efforts will continue to include everyone, with Dawa at the top of the list," Iraqi Vice President and ISCI member Adel Abdul-Mehdi told reporters.

Link

Iraq

Graft case against ex-minister splits Iraq parties

2009-06-01

The arrest Saturday of a former top official on allegations of graft reflects Iraq's attempt to prove it is serious about fighting corruption, but political rivalries are making it hard to move other such investigations forward in parliament.

Lawmakers are increasingly dividing along party lines ahead of national elections in January, as they move to polish images and prepare candidates for campaigns. They said the split is making it hard to reach a consensus on which investigations to pursue, despite any evidence of wrongdoing.

Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani was taken into custody at Baghdad's airport after the Dubai-bound airplane he was on was ordered to turn back. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had accepted Mr. Sudani's resignation last week, following two days of questioning in parliament. He is charged with mismanaging public funds and improperly using his authority in relation to the ministry's food-rations program. Mr. Sudani has denied the accusations. His brother, Sabah Mohammed al-Sudani, an aide to the minister, was arrested on May 7 and charged with embezzlement. He denies wrongdoing.

Mr. Sudani was seen as a relatively easy target because his ministry was widely considered one of the most corrupt in Iraq. Now, lawmakers want to question top officials in the ministries for oil, transportation, electricity and the national elections commission. The watchdog group Transparency International listed Iraq as the third most corrupt country in the world in 2008.

One example of the political fighting surrounds the case of Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, an official now facing accusations of mismanagement and graft. Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said the accusations are tied to politics, not facts. Lawmaker Jabber Khalifa al-Jabber said his Oil and Gas Committee had 140 lawmakers' signatures to request Mr. Shahristani to come to parliament for questioning. But this past week, more than a dozen parliamentarians, most from the United Iraqi Alliance bloc that includes Mr. Maliki's party, asked to withdraw their names. Mr. Shahristani is an independent member of the Alliance.

The committee had to start over, this time getting 125 signatures. "It seems there is some political interference with our wish to question the oil minister," said Mr. Jabber, a member of the Fadhila party. Mr. Maliki's adviser denied interference. He said the oil minister is being targeted because of the campaign ambitions of other lawmakers.

Link

Iraq

Dawlat al-Qanoon wins more than one-quarter of provincial council seats

2009-02-20

Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) garnered more than one-quarter of the all 490 in the country's local council, according the Indpendent High Eletoral Commission (IHEC) on Thursday.

"Maliki's list achieved matchless victory in Baghdad, where it won more than half all 57 seats, retaining its position in the lead compared to the rest of the blocs in the elections that took place late last month in 14 provinces," the IHEC said in a press conference in the Iraqi capital on Thursday to announce the final results of the elections.

"All in all, the Dawlat al-Qanoon list collected 126 seats in 12 out of 14 provinces where local elections were held. The list snatched the top ranking in nine southern provinces in addition to the capital Baghdad," the IHEC said.

"The list obtained 28 out of Baghdad's 57 seats, crushing the (Sunni) contender Iraqi Accord Front (IAF), which won seven seats," it said.

"Dawlat al-Qanoon also obtained 20 out of Basra's 35 seats, 13 out of Thi-Qar's 31 seats, 13 out of Wassit's 28 seats, 11 out of al-Qadissiya's 28 seats, nine out of Karbala's 27 seats, eight out of Babel's 30 seats and eight out of 27 seats in Missan province, where the Shahid al-Mihrab list of Abdelaziz al-Hakim, the leader of the (Shiite) United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) obtained the same number of seats," the IHEC noted.

Maliki's coalition, however, obtained only two out of Diala's 29 seats, ranking fifth, and two seats in Salah al-Din province's local council's 29 seats, it added.

Dawlat al-Qanoon returned empty-handed in the provinces of Ninewa and al-Anbar.

Link

Iraq

Sadr to join forces with Maliki's party

2009-02-14

Iraq's senior cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has suggested his anti-US movement could return to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia alliance. "If there is an intention to reform policies and put in new systems and controls that are not ethnic or sectarian or partisan and include all political powers ... we are with this idea," Sadr said in a Friday prayers message read out in mosques.

Found out you're irrelevant, eh ...

He also urged all Iraqi factions to join hands to make the new policies take effect, and defeat the enemies of the nation.
That'd be us, of course.
The remarks follow Iraq's January 31 provincial elections, in which Sadr-backed candidates became the second-largest party next to Maliki's allies in several provinces, including the capital Baghdad.

Sadr's comments echo a call the premier following the polls, in which he urged political parties to work together to strengthen provincial councils and help rebuild the war-torn country. "The hearts of Iraqis no longer have patience with the lack of services" in the country, Sadr said. "Alliances should not be with the former sectarian power that has brought us previous wars and hunger, and should also avoid the powers that tend towards the former regime," he added.

The Free Independent Movement, backed by Sadr, has said that it may return to the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes Maliki's Dawa party, under the conditions. In September 2007, 32 Sadrist lawmakers quitted the United Iraqi Alliance, complaining that Maliki had stopped seeking their consultation after a dispute over a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

Link

Iraq

No deal yet in Iraq parliament on U.S. troop pact

2008-11-26

Iraq's parliament on Wednesday delayed a vote on a landmark pact setting a deadline for U.S. troops to leave, after agreeing to Sunni Arab demands to make it dependent on a referendum but rejecting other conditions.

The deal paves the way for U.S. troops to withdraw by the end of 2011, bringing closer to an end the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted former dictator Saddam Hussein only to usher in years of sectarian bloodshed.

Once-dominant minority Sunnis are concerned their departure may dilute their influence in the Shi'ite-led country. They have proposed several political reforms they want adopted before they approve the pact.

The vote has been postponed to Thursday.

The Iraqi National Dialogue, one of two Sunni political blocs whose blessing for the pact is seen as key to achieving a broad consensus, said it had demanded reforms that would defang efforts to find and try members of Saddam's former Baath party.

"We refused the Iraqi National Dialogue's two requests," said Jaber Khalifa, a senior member of the ruling Shi'ite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance.

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and its Kurdish partners, who together hold most of Iraq's 275 parliamentary seats, had already agreed in principle to Sunni demands for a referendum on the security deal in mid-2009.

The pact has been approved by the cabinet and signed with Washington.

Maliki was probably popular enough after presiding over a sharp drop in violence to ensure approval of the U.S. troop deal in a referendum, said political analyst Kadhim al-Miqdad.

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Iraq

Iraqi lawmakers set to endorse US pact

2008-11-26

BAGHDAD- Iraqi MPs are expected Wednesday to endorse a wide-ranging accord that will allow US troops to remain another three years, despite reservations by Sunnis and fierce opposition by Shiite hardliners.

The 275-member assembly is due to vote by a show of hands on the wide-ranging accord, which would require US troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of June and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011. The measure enjoys the support of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Kurdish alliance, and a number of independent MPs -- enough for it to pass with slightly more than the requisite simple majority of 138 votes.

But deputy parliamentary speaker Khaled al-Attiya said the government and the UIA were making a last-minute push to assemble a broader coalition. "We do not want to pass this agreement with a difference of two or three or four votes," Attiya told AFP on the eve of the vote. "For this reason there are continuing efforts to achieve a vast majority."

The agreement -- the product of nearly a year of hard-nosed negotiations -- was approved by Iraq's cabinet over a week ago with support from the major blocs representing the country's Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish communities. Iraq won a number of concessions in the deal, including a hard timeline for withdrawal, the right to search US military cargo and the right to try US soldiers for crimes committed while they are off their bases and off-duty.

The agreement also requires that US troops obtain Iraqi permission for all military operations, and that they hand over the files of all detainees in US custody to the Iraqi authorities, who will decide their fate. The pact also forbids US troops from using Iraq as a launch-pad or transit point for attacking another country, which may reassure Syria and Iran.

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Iraq

Iraq votes on SOFA Wednesday

2008-11-23

Iraq's parliament will vote Wednesday on a security pact with the US that would allow American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years.

Mashhadani says chances that the deal will pass are "50-50.''

Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani made the announcement on Saturday at the end of a seven-hour debate on the agreement in which at least 40 lawmakers spoke. He said the vote could even be held earlier than Wednesday if the country's main political groups reached agreement on the deal.

Al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab who supports the pact, said chances that the deal will pass are "50-50.'' "We support the agreement because it is the least bad alternative," he said.

Some other Sunni politicians are calling to put the pact to a referendum.

The 85-member United Iraqi Alliance, which is the biggest Shia parliamentary group, expressed its support for the pact through Hadi al-Ameiri. "It is not the ideal choice but it is the best choice because at least it sets a timetable for the departure of American troops," he said.

30 MPs of the Shia Sadrist bloc, have opposed the deal from the start. Thousands of Sadrist supporters gathered in Baghdad on Friday to protest against the security agreement. "The deal was written by American hands and the government has been obliged to sign it. It damages Iraq's sovereignty," Nassir al-Isawi said.

To be approved the Status Of Forces Agreement or SOFA, needs 138 votes from the 275 MPs.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi, said the deal was necessary because the premature departure of US troops would cause serious security threats. "The alternative is much worse than the agreement,'' he said, referring to an expiring UN mandate, under which the US forces are operating in Iraq. The mandate expires on December 31 2008.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government negotiated the deal over the past several months, has said he wanted the deal approved by consensus, and the country's most influential Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has indicated that the deal would be acceptable only if it wins passage in the legislature by a big majority.

Link

Iraq

Shiite Bloc's Demands Stall U.S.-Iraq Pact

2008-10-21

Key members of the Iraqi parliament's largest political bloc have called for all American troops to leave this country in 2011 as a condition for allowing the U.S. military to stay here beyond year's end, officials said Sunday.

The change sought by the influential United Iraqi Alliance would harden the withdrawal date for U.S. troops. A draft bilateral agreement completed this week would require American forces to leave by December 2011 but would allow for an extension by mutual agreement.

The Shiite bloc, which includes Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party, also insists that Iraqi officials have a bigger role in determining whether U.S. soldiers accused of wrongdoing are subject to prosecution in Iraqi courts, said Sami al-Askeri, a political adviser to Maliki. That proposal has been resisted by the Pentagon.

If the Iraqi alliance's conditions are not met, "I cannot see that this agreement will see the light," said Askeri, who is also a lawmaker from Maliki's party.

Link

Iraq

Shiite leader requires transparency in Iraq-U.S. pact signing

2008-10-19

Aswat al-Iraq: Shiite cleric Sayyed Abdelaziz al-Hakim on Saturday called for transparency when signing any agreements provided that they would not violate the Iraqi constitution, referring to the proposed Iraq-U.S. long-term security agreement. "Al-Hakim, during a meeting with U.S. ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker, stressed that transparency and equality are required in any agreement," according to a release issued by Hakim's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) as received by Aswat al-Iraq. "This should be in the interest of the two countries, and to preserve the unity of Iraq, in addition to avoid violating the Iraqi constitution," read the release.

Hakim is also the head of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) bloc that occupies 83 out of 275 seats in Iraq's Council of Representatives (parliament).

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