Iraq stares at a collapse, Maliki still at helm

Thursday, 3 July 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sunnis, Kurds shun Iraq parliament

The United States, United Nations, Iran and Iraq’s own Shi’ite clergy have pushed hard for politicians to come up with an inclusive government to hold the fragmenting country together as Sunni insurgents bear down on Baghdad. The leader of the al Qaeda offshoot spearheading the insurgency, the Islamic State, has declared a ‘caliphate’ in the lands it has seized in Iraq and Syria. Its leader vowed on Tuesday to avenge what he said were wrongs committed against Muslims worldwide. Despite the urgency, the Iraqi parliament’s first session since its election in April collapsed when Sunnis and Kurds refused to return from a recess to the parliamentary chamber after Shi’ites failed to name a prime minister. Parliament is not likely to meet again for at least a week, leaving Iraq in political limbo and Maliki clinging to power as a caretaker, rejected by Sunnis and Kurds. Under a governing system put in place after the removal of Saddam Hussein, the prime minister has always been a member of the Shi’ite majority, the speaker of parliament a Sunni and the largely ceremonial president a Kurd. The Shi’ite bloc known as the National Alliance, in which Maliki’s State of Law coalition is the biggest group, has met repeatedly in recent days to bargain over the premiership but has so far been unable either to endorse Maliki for a third term or to name an alternative. Fewer than a third of lawmakers returned from the recess. Sunni parties said they would not put forward their candidate for speaker until the Shi’ites pick a premier. The Kurds have also yet to nominate a president. Osama al-Nujaifi, a leading Sunni politician, former speaker and strong foe of Maliki, warned that ‘without a political solution, the sound of weapons will be loud, and the country will enter a black tunnel’. He said his bloc did not have a candidate for a speaker so far and was waiting to see who the National Alliance would nominate for prime minister. “If there is a new policy with a new prime minister, we will deal with them positively. Otherwise the country will go from bad to worse,” Nujaifi said. Shi’ite lawmakers sought to shift blame to the Sunni and Kurdish blocs, saying the premiership was the last position to be named in the constitutionally-defined process. Mehdi al-Hafidh, parliament’s oldest member who is tasked by the constitution with chairing the legislature’s meetings until a speaker is named, said the next session would be held in a week, if agreement was possible after discussions. Fighting rages Baghdad can ill-afford further delays. Government troops have been battling for three weeks against fighters led by the group formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This week it shortened its name to the Islamic State and declared its leader ‘caliph’ – historic title of successors of the Prophet Mohammad who ruled the whole Muslim world. Speaking for the first time since then, the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi vowed revenge for what he said were wrongs committed against Muslims, calling on fighters to avenge them “Your brothers, on every piece of this earth, are waiting for your rescue,” Baghdadi purportedly said in an audio message that was posted online, naming a string of countries from Central African Republic to Burma where he said violations were being committed against Muslims. “By Allah, we will take revenge, by Allah we will take revenge, even if after a while,” he said in the Ramadan message. Baghdadi also called on Muslims to immigrate to the ‘Islamic State’, saying it was a duty. Fighting has raged in recent days near former dictator Saddam Hussein’s home city, Tikrit, north of Baghdad. ISIL also controls suburbs just west of the capital and clashes have erupted to the south, leaving the city of seven million confronting threats from three sides. The United Nations said on Tuesday more than 2,400 Iraqis had been killed in June alone, making the month by far the deadliest since the height of sectarian warfare during the US ‘surge’ offensive in 2007.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (R) and Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives (3nd R), attend a session at the Parliament headquarters in Baghdad – REUTERS