Tag: Adil Abdul-Mahdi

The American occupation of Iraq is over,” said Sabah al-Saidi, the head of one of two main blocs in Iraq’s parliament. View Sample Sign Up Now Trump, al-Saidi added, had slipped into Iraq, “as though Iraq is a state of the United States.” While Trump didn’t meet with any officials, he spoke with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi by phone after a “difference in points of view” over arrangements led to a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders to be scrapped, according to the prime minister’s office. The visit could have unintended consequences for American policy, with officials from both sides of Iraq’s political divide calling for a vote in Parliament to expel U.S. forces from the country. The president, who kept to the U.S. air base approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, said he had no plans to withdraw the 5,200 troops in the country. “Iraq should not be a platform for the Americans to settle their accounts with either the Russians or the Iranians in the region,” said Hakim al-Zamili, a senior lawmaker in al-Saidi’s Islah bloc in Parliament. U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. Still, after defeating IS militants in their last urban bastions last year, Iraqi politicians and militia leaders are speaking out against the continued presence of U.S. forces on Iraqi soil. The rival Binaa bloc, commanded by politicians and militia leaders close to Iran, also does not favor the U.S.. Qais Khazali, the head of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia that fought key battles against IS in north Iraq, promised on Twitter that Parliament would vote to expel U.S. forces from Iraq, or the militias would force them out by “other means.” Khazali was jailed by British and U.S. forces from 2007 to 2010 for managing sections of the Shia insurgency against the occupation during those years. Trump’s visit would be a “great moral boost to the political parties, armed factions, and others who oppose the American presence in Iraq,” Iraqi political analyst Ziad al-Arar said. Iraq’s Sunni politicians have been largely quiet about the presidential visit, reflecting the ties they have cultivated with the U.S. to counterbalance the might of the country’s Iran-backed and predominantly-Shiite militias.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — For nearly five months, Iraqi politicians have wrangled over the shape of their new government. He had rebranded himself as an “Iraq First” populist, vowing to fight corruption, opposing both American and Iranian intervention, and promising a new nonsectarian politics. “People who want reform or major change, they’ll be unhappy. This is a vote for continuity.” The new leadership appeared to be acceptable to both the United States and Iran, analysts said. Mr. Salih was elected in a landslide by the Iraqi Parliament on Tuesday. He designated Mr. Abdul Mahdi, the consensus candidate of the major blocs in Parliament, to form a government. But the selection of Mr. Abdul Mahdi and Mr. Salih suggest a more conciliatory approach. Mr. Salih, too, is seen as a uniter. Mr. Salih, 58, has a doctorate in engineering from Britain and has previously served as Prime Minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region and as planning minister in the Iraqi government. The selection of president went to Parliament, where Mr. Salih won 220 out of 273 votes, largely because he is seen as more conciliatory on the issue of Kurdish independence.

To suggest Halbousi, the Sunni Arab governor of the Anbar governorate is an Iranian proxy, is on its face ridiculous. Once again, the politics behind the selection are complex. Barham Salih, a favorite of many in the Washington foreign policy crowd, is one nominee for president. That said, Barham is charismatic, fluent in Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, and English, and has had long experience in Baghdad in a number of previous portfolios. Corruption has long swirled around Barzani’s office; Massoud and Fuad made no effort to differentiate between personal wealth, party holdings, and Kurdistan Regional Government property. But, while the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to which Fuad belongs has been antagonistic to Baghdad ever since the fall of Saddam Hussein (not always before that, though), it is better at the wheeling and dealing of government formation. Barzani has long had close ties to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and has previously given property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to most of the members of Maliki’s bloc. Almost immediately, Iraqis floated a number of new candidates’ name: perennial candidate and former oil minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi; former finance minister Ali Allawi; intelligence chief Mustafa Kadhimy, and economic technocrat Mazin Al-Eshaiker, among many, many others. Government services fell short in places like Basra but, then again, the nature of the Iraqi governance is that the prime minister does not fully control his cabinet, let alone provincial governance. Where Abadi will really be missed is as a peacemaker: Iraqi politics have become decidedly less sectarian under his tenure.