|
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Wall Street Journal...'.
Found 1 result
-
Iraq Ex-Leader Maliki Tries Political Comeback By Asa Fitch BAGHDAD–Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is trying to revive his political career five months after leaving office, complicating his successor’s push to bring Iraq’s factions together in the fight against Sunni extremist group Islamic State. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has been received warmly in his first months in office, having made gestures toward reconciliation between the country’s Shiite Muslim majority to which he belongs, and its Sunni and Kurdish minorities. He has forced army generals close to Mr. Maliki into retirement and announced judicial overhauls requiring due process after arrests, addressing Sunni complaints about lengthy detentions without charge. Mr. Abadi last month managed to strike an oil export deal with Kurdish leaders, potentially paving the way for the resolution of a conflict over domestic energy resources that has been a source of political division for years. Mr. Maliki, however, still leads the Islamic Dawa party, to which Mr. Abadi also belongs. And while Mr. Maliki has publicly praised Mr. Abadi’s attempts to heal Iraq’s sectarian divides, the two men are locked in a power struggle within the party, said people close to Mr. Maliki. Mr. Maliki could conceivably leverage his still-considerable support from within his party to push Mr. Abadi aside when the time is right, these people said. Assyrian Christian parliament member Yonadam Kanna, who worked closely with Mr. Abadi in parliament before he became prime minister, said Mr. Abadi was weaker than he appeared, the product of a political setup dictated by the U.S. and Iran last year to urgently confront the Islamic State threat. If Iraq beats back Islamic State’s advance, lingering fissures could again become exposed, he said. Mr. Maliki has been trying to repair his image by fighting accusations that his divisive leadership contributed to the rapid advance of Islamic State. Though a rebound seems unlikely, the alliance that backed Mr. Abadi could dissolve if Islamic State is defeated. That could open the way for Mr. Maliki to return. Mr. Maliki still harbors major political ambitions of his own, say insiders such as Ali Dabbagh, who worked as Mr. Maliki’s spokesman in his first term as prime minister but now opposes him. “Maliki is still dreaming, and this is going to kill him,” he said. “I think finally he should accept the reality. This is politics and this is like a wheel, down and up, and you are down. I don’t think that anybody would allow you to come up–ever.” Mr. Maliki couldn’t be reached to comment and his office declined to comment. Mr. Maliki presided over a Shiite-dominated government from 2006 until August of last year, when he lost the backing of Iran and fell out of favor with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani–a religious figure with a large following in Iraq’s Shiite heartland in the south. His veto can spell the end of political careers in this country. There was also intense pressure from the U.S. for him to go, amid accusations that his marginalization of Sunnis created sympathy, and even support, in that community for Islamic State. Mr. Maliki has been making frequent appearances in local media and traveling outside Baghdad for meetings with Shiite power brokers in recent weeks. After he reluctantly stepped down, Mr. Maliki took the position of first vice president and had largely stayed out of view. Mr. Maliki’s attempt at a return is natural for a politician, said Rafa’a Abdul Jabbar, deputy head of the political commission of the Al Ahrar Bloc, a rival Shiite coalition aligned with hard-line political and religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Mr. Maliki could try to make a comeback in parliamentary elections scheduled for 2018, he said, but there was also a danger that Mr. Maliki was trying to elbow his way back to power by subverting the political process. “If the aim of his appearance right now in the media is to do a kind of coup d’
