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Iraq parliament elects Sunni lawmaker al-Halbousi as speaker, breaking deadlock


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( @yota691 I'll be linking to this article in my weekly update this morning. If this is a duplicate or it gets moved, please edit my update post to reflect the new link. Thanks!

 

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180916-iraq-parliament-elects-sunni-lawmaker-al-halbousi-as-speaker-breaking-deadlock/

 

Iraq parliament elects Sunni lawmaker al-Halbousi as speaker, breaking deadlock

 
September 16, 2018 at 2:19 pm | Published in: Iraq, Middle East, News
A member of Iraqi security forces waves an Iraqi flag meters away from the Peshmerga site in Kirkuk, Iraq on October 14, 2017. Iraqi security forces continue to deploy troops at southern Kirkuk as tension between Hashd al-Shaabi fighters and Peshmerga increases. [Hassan Ghaedi/Anadolu Agency]
A member of the Iraqi security force waves an Iraqi flag meters away from the Peshmerga site in Kirkuk, Iraq on 14 October 2017 [Hassan Ghaedi/Anadolu Agency]
 
September 16, 2018 at 2:19 pm
 

Iraq’s parliament elected Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Halbousi as speaker on Saturday, marking an important step towards establishing a new government four months after an inconclusive national election.

Parliament had been due to elect a speaker and two deputies during its first meeting on September 3, but failed to do so as lawmakers were unable to determine which competing bloc had the most seats.

Hassan al-Kaabi, who ran on Moqtada al-Sadr’s Saeroon list which came first in May’s national election, was elected as Halbousi’s first deputy. The vote for a second deputy was inconclusive and will be put to a second round on Sunday.

Halbousi’s election marks the start of a 90-day process outlined in the constitution, designed to eventually lead to a new government.

Lawmakers must next elect a new president and task the leader of the largest bloc to form a government as prime minister. But a dominant bloc has yet to emerge, against a backdrop of shifting political alliances.

Halbousi defeated former Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi, winning the position with 169 votes, according to Shia lawmaker Husham al-Suhail. Iraq’s parliament contains 329 seats.

Announcing the vote, the temporary leader of the assembly said Halbousi, 37, had become the youngest speaker of parliament in Iraq’s history.

Before running in May’s national election as a candidate on the Anbar Our Identity electoral list, Halbousi was the governor of Anbar province. He had previously served in Iraq’s parliament, from 2014 to 2017.

Since Saddam Hussein was toppled in a 2003 US-led invasion, power has been shared among Iraq’s three largest ethnic-sectarian components. The prime minister has traditionally been a Shi’ite Arab, the speaker of parliament a Sunni Arab and the president a Kurd.

Iraqis voted in May in their first parliamentary election since the defeat of Daesh’s self-declared caliphate, but a contentious recount process delayed the announcement of final results until last month.

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Middle East

Pompeo speaks with Halbousi amid ongoing problems in Iraq

2 hours ago
 

Pompeo speaks with Halbousi amid ongoing problems in Iraq
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) spoke on Wednesday with Iraqi Parliamentary Speaker, Mohammed Halbousi (R). (Photo: Getty)
 
 

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on Wednesday with Mohammed Halbousi, the newly-elected speaker of the Iraqi parliament.

Pompeo congratulated Halbousi and “underlined” that the US “looks forward to working with him in this most important new role,” according to a State Department read-out of their telephone conversation.

Pompeo’s call follows pro-Iranian statements that Halbousi made after winning the speakership on Saturday: Iraq should not abide by the sanctions on Iran, and that he would invite his Iranian counterpart to Baghdad to issue a joint statement to that effect.

Although a Sunni Arab, Halbousi ran for parliament on the pro-Iranian Fatih (Conquest) list, which is dominated by the leaders of the Shia militias that have arisen in Iraq over the past four years, as the country battled the so-called Islamic State (IS.)

Halbousi was backed by Iran in his bid for the speakership, and he defeated the former Iraqi Defense Minister, Khalid al-Obeidi, whom the US had supported.

There also occurred on Wednesday an event antithetical to Pompeo’s call to Halbousi: A group of young men from his own tribe—Al Halabsa—held a large gathering in Anbar Province, where Halbousi had formerly been governor, and they issued a scathing statement against him.

It noted that immediately after becoming Speaker of Parliament, Halbousi had called for lifting international sanctions on “the Iranian Safavi enemy,” while the statement denounced him as a “traitor.”

Entifadh Qanbar, an Iraqi-American who heads the Future Foundation in Washington and who distributed the statement, asked why Pompeo would “take an extra step and make a phone call to Halbousi to congratulate him.”

According to the State Department’s read-out, Pompeo also “pledged to continue to stand with Iraqis, as they pursue security, prosperity, and stability.”

The Secretary also “emphasized his support for Iraq’s territorial integrity and sovereignty” and “noted his support for Iraq’s efforts to form a moderate, nationalist, Iraqi government, pursuant to the constitutional timeline, that is responsive to the aspirations of the Iraqi people.” 

The statement, however, appeared at sharp odds with the picture of Iraq that was presented at a Hudson Institute seminar, also on Wednesday, by two Iraqi-Americans who travel frequently to the area.

Ahmed Ali is at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he is Program Officer and Director of its Iraq Program.

Ali, who had just returned from Iraq, suggested that there is “a major crisis for the political system” that includes a fundamental question about its “legitimacy.” 

“I don’t think the majority of Iraqis would see elections, or politics in general, as a conducive avenue to address their grievances,” he said.

Omar al-Nidawi, Iraq Director at Gryphon Partners, concurred, explaining, “Iraq’s problem is to a great extent a crisis of credibility and legitimacy of the current political order.”

As the discussion was opened to questions from the audience, Kurdistan 24 noted that they had presented a “very grim view of Iraq,” contrasting it with the optimism of the George W. Bush administration that the war in Iraq would be easy and that it would precipitate the democratic transformation of the Middle East.

Anis Ibrahim is a self-described “social media influencer,” with whom young Iraqis have spent 300 million hours of engagement, as he told the Hudson Institute seminar, and he receives over 1,000 messages a day from them.

“Actually, Iraq is worse than what we listened to,” Ibrahim said, because, “we think Iraq is a functioning, real country with democracy, and it’s not.”

Noting that the US had been engaged in Iraq for over 15 years, Kurdistan 24 asked whether the US should keep muddling through or try a different approach?

“If there is anything the US can do,” Nidawi replied, it is “to acknowledge the problems, not hope for small problems to go away on their own, but rather to address them head-on.”

“When it is grim, we have to say it’s a bad situation,” Ali added in agreement. “Clearly, the US government has to look at it the same way.”

“We should be honest with ourselves,” he continued, “if we really want some good solutions.”

Editing by Nadia Riva

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