Tag: Council of Representatives of Iraq

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.