Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Iraq

Four brigades split from Iraq's PMF in sign of internal rift

2020-04-23

[The National] Four Iraqi militia brigades have reportedly split from the Popular Mobilisation Forces and are now under the directives of the office of the outgoing Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

The killing of the PMF's chief of staff Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis in January by the US deprived the forces of their leading policymaker and challenged the standing of Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

In a letter addressed to Faleh Al Fayyad, the new head of the PMF - also known as Hashed Al Shaabi - Mr Abdul Mahdi said "their operations and administration" will now be directed by his office.

"The details will be disclosed at a later time," the letter said.

The brigades who have split are the Imam Ali, Ali Al Akbar, Abbas and Ansar Al Marjaiya, all loyal to the top Shiite holy man Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani.

Mr Abdel Mahdi is no longer in office, with former head of intelligence Mustafa Al Kadhimi having taken up the role as Prime Minister designate earlier this month. He is still considered the last holder of the office, however, until a new leader can be decided on by parliament.

The outgoing prime minister has come under pressure from Washington to curb Iran's influence in Iraq, particularly after several recent unclaimed attacks against US interests in the country.

The militias, which helped Iraqi and US-led international coalition forces drive out ISIS, have broad influence in Iraqi politics.

However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
Iraq declared victory against the holy warriors in 2017. The decision is a direct message to the PMF that Mr Al Sistani's religious call to form a coherent fighting force against ISIS has come to an end, an Iraqi parliamentarian told The National.

"The Marjaiya [brigade] and the outgoing prime minister made this decision, that in itself sends a strong message," he said.

An electoral alliance made up of militia leaders and fighters came second in a 2018 parliamentary election and went on alongside populist holy man Moqtada Al Sadr, whose political group came first, to jointly nominate Mr Abdul Mahdi as premier.

Mr Abdul Mahdi issued a decree ordering the militias to come to heel by the end of July 2019, or be deemed "illegitimate".

His decree forces groups that make up the PMF to choose between political and paramilitary activity.

Link

Iraq

Sadr calls for release of Turkish hostages

2015-09-14

[ARABNEWS] Iraq's powerful Shiite holy man Moqtada Sadr has condemned the kidnapping of 18 Turkish workers in Baghdad last week and said he was ready to assist the government in securing their release.

Sadr's message follows a similar statement by top Shiite holy man Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who called for the Turkish hostages to be released.

The Turks, who work for a construction company owned by Nurol Holding, appeared in a video on Friday under a Shiite slogan, but it was not clear if the kidnappers belonged to an established group.

The captors threatened to attack Turkish interests in Iraq unless Ankara met its demands, which included stopping the passage of bully boyz from ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
to Iraq.

Sadr's opinion holds sway over tens of thousands of followers. Fighters loyal to him once controlled swathes of Baghdad and helped defend the capital after Daesh swept across the Syrian border in June 2014.

"In my name and the name of all lovers of peace and Islam, I demand their release no matter the political or financial motives or other conflicts, and regardless of who the kidnapper was," Sadr said of the Turkish hostages in a message to followers posted online on Saturday.

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Iraq

Baghdad streets, closed by militias, made accessible

2015-08-29

[ARABNEWS] Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Friday ordered military commanders to make it easier for civilians to get into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone while improving access to streets across the country closed off by political and security factions.

Militias, political parties and influential figures have created many no-go areas in Baghdad and other cities in response to waves of boom-mobileings since the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The Green Zone is a heavily defended district in central Baghdad that is home to many government buildings and several Western embassies.

The order comes in the third week of a reform drive by Al-Abadi aimed at combating rampant corruption and streamlining the bloated government, in response to weeks of protests and calls from top Shiite holy man Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani.

Ahead of fresh street protests expected in the capital and southern cities on Friday, Al-Abadi ordered commanders to implement a plan "to protect civilians ... from being targeted by terrorism," according to online statements. If the move actually goes ahead, it is likely to face significant opposition from embassies in the Green Zone -- including those of the United States and Britannia -- due to security concerns.

While attacks have dropped in Baghdad compared with the first half of last year, bombings that are sometimes claimed by Daesh are still a frequent occurrence in the capital.

Link

Iraq

Thousands demonstrate in Iraq capital for more reforms

2015-08-15

Thousands of people turned out for a festive demonstration in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on Friday, expressing support for Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi's reform drive while calling on him to do more.

On Sunday, Abadi announced a reform programme in response to weeks of protests and to a call for drastic change from Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. Parliament approved the plan, along with additional measures, two days later.

In Baghdad, the demonstrators waved Iraqi flags and criticised most politicians while praising Abadi. They chanted slogans including "Out, out, you are all thieves," and "No promises, no guarantees, we want the dissolution of the parliament."

But of Abadi, they said: "Oh Haider, march, march, we are all with you in Tahrir."

Some carried pictures of the premier with the text "All the people are with you."

Almost like a new cult of personality...

Images of other politicians were also present, but with their faces crossed out in red.

"Abadi gets his power from the people, and now he has wide acceptance from us, and he has the support of the Marjaiyah (Shia religious leadership)," said activist Mohammed Jabbar. "He does not have any excuse; he should implement the reforms."

Jabbar is comfortable with a dictator so long as it's his kind of dictator...

"The first reforms are acceptable, but we want more. We want to try the corrupt and get back the Iraqi money that was wasted," he said, also calling for the reform of the judiciary.

Other demonstrators demanded changes including a government of technocrats, and for all the current ministers to be sacked.

Amid a major heatwave that has seen temperatures top 50 degrees Celsius, protesters have railed against the poor quality of services, especially power outages that leave just a few hours of government-supplied electricity per day.

Thousands of people have turned out in Baghdad and cities in the Shia south to vent their anger and pressure the authorities to make changes. Their demands were given a boost last week when Sistani, who is revered by millions, called for Abadi to take "drastic measures" against corruption, saying the "minor steps" he had announced were not enough.

Various parties and politicians have sought to align themselves with the protesters in order to benefit from the movement and mitigate the risk to themselves.

Even with popular support for change, the entrenched nature of corruption and the fact that parties across the political spectrum benefit from it will make any efforts extremely difficult.

Abadi warned on Wednesday that the reform process "will not be easy; it will be painful," and that corrupt individuals would seek to impede change.

Link

Iraq

Iraqi PM pledges hard line against alleged militia abuses

2015-02-02

Baghdad - Iraq’s prime minister blamed “criminals” on Saturday for alleged mass executions, following reports that dozens of civilians were killed by Shia militias in Diyala province.

“It’s not permitted for people to take the law into their own hands and punish others whenever they want to settle scores,” Haider Al Abadi told a gathering of Sunni and Shia religious and political leaders in Baghdad.

This is the acid test for Abadi: if he isn't even-handed about this the various Sunni tribes simply won't cooperate with the government to drive out ISIS, and the war will be lost.

Abadi, a moderate Shia who has sought reconciliation between Sunnis and Shias, had called on Wednesday for an investigation into accusations that Shia militias systematically executed at least 72 people in the village of Barwanah.

Accusations of such mass atrocities by Shia militias threaten to undermine Abadi’s efforts to win Sunni support to battle Daesh militants, which grabbed large parts of northern and western Iraq last year.

“Those who commit killings and aggressions on sanctities, set fire to people’s homes and assault their souls and properties in areas liberated from Daesh - those (acts) are no less dangerous than terrorism,” Abadi said.

Shia militias took the lead in battling the militants and keeping it from overrunning Baghdad after the Iraqi army nearly collapsed last summer. But their role has been controversial, with Sunni civilians complaining militia elements have been killing and displacing them in what they claim is a policy of collective punishment.

Abadi said those responsible for the Barwanah killings were driving some Sunni Iraqis into the arms of Daesh. “These are outlaw criminals implementing their own agendas to divide Iraqis,” he said.

Other political and religious leaders, including Iraq’s most powerful Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, have echoed Abadi’s call for an investigation, and the United Nations has also supported a probe.

“The government must investigate the alleged attacks on civilians in the areas where operations took place,” Sistani’s aide Ahmed Al Safi said in a sermon.

However, some were sceptical an investigation would be meaningful. “What happened in Barwanah has happened in many areas and it will happen again. Daesh will do it, militias will do it,” said independent Sunni lawmaker Mithal Al Alusi.

Link

Iraq

Iraqi PM rules out foreign boots on the ground

2014-10-21

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al Abadi on Monday ruled out any foreign ground intervention to assist government forces in retaking territory lost to militants and urged Sunnis to give up such hopes.

Abadi was speaking in the city of Najaf after a rare meeting with the most revered figure among Iraqi Shias, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, and before a trip to neighbouring Iran.

"No ground forces from any superpower, international coalition or regional power will fight here," Abadi told reporters, reiterating previous remarks on the issue. "This is my decision, it is the decision of the Iraqi government."

Some officials and Sunni tribal leaders in areas most affected by the unrest have argued the world should step up its involvement from air strikes to a ground intervention against the ISIS group.

"I am telling our brothers in Anbar and Salaheddin who asked for foreign ground troops that such an appeal should not be made for two reasons," Abadi said. "We don't need foreign combat troops. And there is no country in the world which would be willing to fight here and give you back your land even if they were asked to."

The prime minister had just met with Sistani, a reclusive Iranian-born cleric who is the highest Shia religious authority in the country. Iraqi state television said it was the first time in four years that Sistani had met a high-ranking Iraqi government official.

Abadi was due to travel to Iran later on Monday for talks on Iraq's war against the ISIS, which has since June seized control of swathes of the country and brought it to the brink of collapse.

Link

Iraq

Iranian clout seen growing over Iraq

2012-09-26

After years of growing influence, a new sign of Irans presence in Iraq has hit the streets. Thousands of signs, that is, depicting Irans supreme leader gently smiling to a population once mobilised against the Islamic Republic in eight years of war.

The campaign underscores widespread doubts over just how independent Iraq and its population can remain from its eastern neighbour, now that US troops have left the country.

The posters of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei first appeared in at least six neighbourhoods in Baghdad and across Iraqs south in August, as part of an annual pro-Palestinian observance started years ago by Iran. They have conspicuously remained up since then.

When I see these pictures, I feel I am in Teheran, not Baghdad, said Asim Salman, 44, an owner of a Baghdad cafe. Authorities must remove these posters, which make us angry.

In Basra, located 550 km south of the capital, they hang near donation boxes decorated with scripts in both countries languages Arabic and Farsi.

One such militia, Asaib Ahl Al Haq, even boasted that it launched the poster campaign, part of a trend thats chipping away at nearly a decades worth of US-led efforts to bring a Western-style democracy here. Sheik Ali Al Zaidi, a senior official in the militia, said they distributed some 20,000 posters of Khamenei across Iraq. He said Khamenei enjoys public support all over the world including Iraq, where he is hailed as a political and religious leader.

Asaib Ahl Al Haq, or Band of the People of Righteousness, carried out deadly attacks against US troops before their withdrawal last year. This month, the group threatened US interests in Iraq as part of the backlash over a blasphemous film.

Iraqi and US intelligence officials have estimated that Iran sends the militia about $5 million in cash and weapons each month. The officials believe there are fewer than 1,000 Asaib Ahl Al Haq militiamen, and that their leaders ~~cower~~ live in Iran.

Irans clout with Iraqs Shias picked up after Saddam Husseins fall from power in 2003, and, in many ways, accelerated since the US military pulled out. Iran has backed at least three militias in Iraq with weapons, training and millions of dollars in funding. Billion-dollar trade pacts have emerged between Teheran and Baghdad, and Iran has opened at least two banks in Iraq that are blacklisted by the United States.

Religious ties also have been renewed, with thousands of Iranian pilgrims visiting holy sites in Iraq daily, including in Najaf, where Iranian rials are as common a currency as Iraqi dinars, and Farsi is easily understood. The posters may reflect a push among some groups for a clerical system similar to Irans. Teheran is widely believed to be lobbying for a member of its ruling theocracy, Grand Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, to succeed Iraqs 81-year-old spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani.

Ever since the ouster of Saddams regime, political leaders in Iraq have sought to rebuild and strengthen relations with Iran, which has responded in kind. Teheran has not been shy about wielding its influence. It was at Irans urging that cleric Muqtada Al Sadr grudgingly threw his political support behind longtime foe Nouri Al Maliki, allowing him to remain prime minister in 2010 after falling short in national elections.

In return, Al Maliki last year all but ignored Iranian military incursions on Kurdish lands in northern Iraq. The government also has delayed, and in Al Sadrs case, quashed, arrest warrants on militants backed by Iranian forces and financiers. Still, even some Iraqis, like the cleric Al Sadr and the cafe owner Salman, advocate retaining strong Iraqi nationalism and their Arab identity.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh condemned the Khamenei posters and said they could add to the already-strained political unrest in the country.

Link

Arabia

Bahrain restores citizenship of cleric

2010-11-05

[Arab News] Bahrain's king has restored the citizenship of a leading holy man, in a possible gesture aimed at easing sectarian tension in the Gulf nation.

Bahrain News Agency said King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ordered Wednesday that Hussein Al-Najati and his family be returned their passports "after correcting their status."

Al-Najati, the Bahrain representative for Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, was stripped of citizenship by the king in September in a sweep against suspected Shiite dissent before last month's parliamentary elections.

Shiite representatives maintained their 18 seats in the 40-member council.

Link

Iraq

Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani behind Iraqi demand for withdrawal timetable

2008-07-12

A strong political debate is being waged in Baghdad on the role the Shiite supreme religious authority in Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, played in negotiations between Iraq and the US on a memorandum of security.

Al Sistani insisted on including a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces.

This intervention by Al Sistani has brought to the fore the differences between the major political parties in the Iraqi government.

The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council led by Abdul Aziz Al Hakim has accepted Al Sistani's demand for a definite timetable for the withdrawal of US forces in Iraq. But the position of the mainly Sunni Iraqi Accord Front and the Kurdish bloc was that the subject of withdrawals was not to be raised in the current negotiations, Kurdish political sources told Gulf News.

Mahmoud Othman, leader of the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, told Gulf News: "The Political Council for National Security, which includes the major political blocs in the country, had agreed not to press for a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces, but it seems the call by Al Sistani is the crucial one to determine the progress of the negotiations with the Americans."

In some Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad people have written slogans on walls reading: "Sistani is the national independence hero".

Resentment

Al Sistani's intervention has caused resentment among some political parties and the Kurds. They feel vital political decisions need to be made by political parties and not clergy.

Al Sistani's position was totally opposed to that of the Kurds who support the long-term presence of the American military.

A spokesman for Al Sistani said, however, he did not interfere with the details of the agreement such as a specific timetable. All he did was to call on the Iraqi Government to commit itself to the principle of sovereignty and national independence in any agreement with the Americans, the leader of the Shiite Islamic Council, Hamid Muala Al Saedi, told Gulf News.

Sources in Najaf told Gulf News Al Sistani told national security advisor Muwaffaq Al Rubaie when the latter visited him days ago that Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki must remember that the national independence of Iraq should be non-negotiable in Iraqi-US talks.

But Iraqi political parties opposed to Iranian influence in Iraq were angered at Al Sistani's attempt to influence the Government. They accused Iran of interfering in the Iraqi-US talks through Al Sistani.

Political researcher Amjad Hussain told Gulf News Iran has a "dangerous" denominational influence on Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.

Link

Iraq

Iraqi Kurds agree to postpone key vote on oil city

2007-12-18

ARBIL, Iraq - The Kurdish regional government in north Iraq has agreed to delay by six months the referendum on the future of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, easing immediate tensions among the mixed population.

Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish government, told AFP that his government favoured postponing the vote. The regional government is in favour of this extension, said Barzani after meeting in the central city of Najaf with the Shias most influential cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani.

According to article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, the referendum had been due to be held by the end of 2007 to decide whether the region with its oil wealth should go under the control of the autonomous Kurdish government.

Barzani said the vote had been delayed for technical reasons. He added that the six-month extension should be used for a UN-supervised mechanism to sort out the issue of Kirkuk, which sits on the second-largest oil and gas reserves in Iraq.

The Kurdish parliament, which heard UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura support a six-month postponement, should soon ratify such a delay, MPs said. Your reaction should be dictated by reason and not by passion, de Mistura told parliament. If not, everyone will suffer the consequences of it.

Adnan Al Mufti, spokesman for the Kurdish parliament, described the idea of an extension as positive. But he told fellow MPs: You have the last word.

Link

Iraq

Hakim Pays Rare Visit to Anbar in a Major Gesture

2007-10-16

In a major reconciliatory gesture, a leader from Iraqs largest Shiite party has paid a rare visit to the Sunni Anbar province, delivering a message of unity to tribal sheikhs who have staged a US-backed revolt against Al-Qaeda militants.

Smart move.

The leader of Parliaments largest Sunni Arab bloc, Adnan Al-Dulaimi, welcomed Ammar Al-Hakims visit to Anbar on Sunday as a good initiative, saying Shiite-Sunni reconciliation was a goal cherished by his once-dominant Sunni Arab minority. This is what we hope, and we pray to Allah for, Al-Dulaimi, whose three-party alliance has 44 of parliaments 275 seats, told The Associated Press yesterday. We pray to God to make our Shiite brothers ... give us our due rights and not monopolize power.

Hakims visit to Anbar was the latest sign that key Iraqi politicians may be working toward reconciliation independently of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malikis government, which has faced criticism for doing little to bring together Iraqs Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis.

Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi visited Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, Iraqs top Shiite cleric, last month at the holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad. The visit amounted to an unprecedented Sunni Arab endorsement of Sistanis role as the nations guardian.

Another smart move.

Hashemis Iraqi Islamic Party also has been distancing itself from militant Sunni Arab groups and has in recent months forged closer ties with Hakims Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the countrys largest Shiite party, and the two major Kurdish parties.

Link

Iraq

Sistani's official for financial affairs assassinated in Najaf

2007-07-22

Sheikh Abdullah Falak, the official responsible for the financial affairs of Iraq's supreme Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, was found dead in his house a few hours after his assassination, Iraqi police said on Saturday. A police source told KUNA unknown armed men stormed Falak's house located in Al-Baraq around 50 meters from Al-Sistani's house and stabbed him to death before fleeing the scene.

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