Iraq’s president named a new prime minister to replace Nuri al-Maliki yesterday, urging him to form a broad government that can stem communal bloodshed, but it was unclear whether Maliki would bow to US and Iranian pressure to step aside.
A Shi’ite Muslim blamed by erstwhile allies in Washington and Tehran as well as Baghdad for driving the alienated Sunni minority into revolt, Maliki deployed loyal militias and special forces in the capital yesterday after making a defiant speech accusing the head of state of abusing the constitution.
Militants from the Islamic State, who routed Maliki’s army in the north in June, made new gains over Kurdish forces despite three days of US air strikes and Baghdad.
There was no immediate reaction from Maliki to the naming of Haider al-Abadi as prime minister. However, Maliki’s son-in-law, a close political ally, told Reuters that he would seek to overturn the nomination in the courts.
President Fouad Masoum asked Abadi, a leader of Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party, to lead an administration that can win the support of a parliament elected in April. In remarks broadcast on television, Masoum, an ethnic Kurd, urged him to “form a broader-based government” over the next month.
Abadi, who spent decades in exile in Britain during the rule of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, urged national unity against the “barbaric” Islamic State.
“We all have to cooperate to stand against this terrorist campaign launched on Iraq and to stop all terrorist groups,” he said in broadcast remarks after meeting Masoum.
Maliki, 60, who emerged from obscurity to become PM in 2006 under US occupation, may not go quietly.
“We will not stay silent,” his son-in-law Hussein al-Maliki said. “The nomination is illegal and a breach of the constitution. We will go to the federal court to object.”
US warning
After Washington endorsed Masoum’s attempts to break three months of post-election political deadlock that have hamstrung Baghdad’s response to the Islamic State, Secretary of State John Kerry called on Maliki not to resort to force or “stir the waters” when Iraqis were seeking a change of leader.
In pointed remarks, he said: “The government formation process is critical in terms of sustaining stability and calm in Iraq and our hope is that Mr. Maliki will not stir those waters.”
As police and elite armed units, many equipped and trained by the United States, locked down the capital’s streets, Kerry added: “There should be no use of force, no introduction of troops or militias in this moment of democracy for Iraq.”
Serving in a caretaker capacity since the inconclusive election on April 30, Maliki has defied calls by Sunnis, Kurds, fellow Shi’ites, regional power broker Iran and Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric to step aside for a less polarising figure.
Washington is losing patience with Maliki, who has placed Shi’ite political loyalists in key positions in the army and military and drawn comparisons with Saddam, the man he plotted against from Iranian exile for decades.
Military aid
US President Barack Obama has urged Iraqi politicians to form a more inclusive government that can counter the growing threat from the Islamic State, though he has rejected calls in some quarters for a return of US troops other than in the form of several hundred military advisers sent in June.
Washington and its European allies are considering requests for more direct military aid from the Kurds, who have themselves differed with Maliki over the division of oil resources and took advantage of the Islamists’ advance to expand their territory.