Could a millionaire save Iraq’s Sunnis?
Khamis Khanjar’s emergence from backroom deal- maker to would- be Sunni champion is just one sign of Iraq’s continued political drift
Dubai- based Khamis Khanjar says he offers an alternative: a federation in which Sunnis, Shias and Kurds could all run their own parts of the country without formally breaking it up.
For at least a decade, Iraqi business mogul Khamis Khanjar has bankrolled Sunni politicians and fighters alike. Now, he wants to use his multi- million dollar fortune to create an autonomous region for Iraq’s Sunnis.
Mr Khanjar’s emergence from backroom deal- maker to would- be Sunni champion is just one sign of Iraq’s continued political drift. Efforts by Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi to reconcile Iraq’s Sunni and Shias have mostly foundered, despite increased US engagement in Iraq. Shia parties and militias are often more focused on their own internal power struggles than brokering a political compromise with Sunnis. Sunni tribes tell security officials and politicians they are at the mercy of both Sunni extremist group ISIS and Shia militias.
Dubai- based Mr Khanjar says he offers an alternative: a federation in which Sunnis, Shias and Kurds could all run their own parts of the country without formally breaking it up. A Sunni federal region would win billions in investments from Gulf Arab states and Turkey, Mr Khanjar and partners in his alliance said.
Last week, Mr Khanjar, a native of the embattled Sunni city of Falluja, announced in a televised address that he was forming a delegation to investigate “extrajudicial killing,” the “demolishing and looting of property” and other alleged human rights violations by Shia militia there. The government has consistently denied any involvement by state forces in killings or abductions and said it actively works to arrest criminal gangs behind such actions.
Over the past year, flanked by a gaggle of aides and British private security contractors, he has made a series of trips to northern Iraq. Mr Khanjar limits himself to Kurdistan, because, he says, his life is in danger from ISIS and Iranianbacked forces. He is also paying $ 65,000 a month to a Washington, DC- based lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House officials to promote his cause in the US.
Iraq’s ruling Shia leaders deride him as a destabilising opportunist. Jabbar al- Abadi, a member of Parliament from the Prime Minister’s Dawa party, described Mr Khanjar’s push for Sunni autonomy as “an invitation to tear Iraq apart.”
Sunni rivals of Mr Khanjar describe him as a self- promoter and accuse him of putting his desire for power above Iraq’s stability. Mr Khanjar’s advantage is his checkbook, which has helped bankroll political coalitions, finance tribal uprisings and
fuel nationwide protests.
Former US diplomats say that Mr Khanjar’s sizeable fortune and close ties with Gulf States and Turkey allow him to be a secret and enduring force in Iraq’s politics.
“Khanjar will play any side so as to gain advantage for himself,” one former US official said. “Question is: does he really want to influence his country for the best, or is he just protecting and expanding his business networks? Or is it all just a game for a guy who is a billionaire?”
That matters because over the past decade, assassinations by ISIS and Shia militias, and political infighting have severely winnowed the pool of budding Sunni politicians. Ex- US diplomat Ali Khedery, who worked in Baghdad from 2003 to 2010, said “Khanjar is one of the very few Sunni figures with vision, intellect, and money, who is left standing, although he is far from perfect in a country wracked by violence, sectarianism and corruption.”
Mr Khanjar’s history is controversial. Former Sunni guerrillas in Iraq say he helped fund the anti- US insurgency that began soon after the 2003 US- led invasion. Later, they say, he backed the 2006 pro- American Sunni tribal uprising that helped destroy ISIS’ original incarnation, Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2010, Mr Khanjar says he helped found one of the two main political lists in Iraq’s national elections. Three years later, he helped finance nationwide Sunni protests against Baghdad.
Ezzat Shabandar, a Shia politician, who negotiated with Mr Khanjar during the 2010 Iraqi government formation process, described him as the man the Shia parties had to talk with earlier this decade.
“He had power and wealth,” Mr Shabandar said, though cautioned that the emergence of ISIS meant it would be harder for Mr Khanjar to be an unrivaled “strongman” for Sunnis today.
Mr Khanjar’s net worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Detractors — from former insurgents to Iraqi intelligence officers — say his family built its fortune by setting up front companies for members of Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1990s. They accuse Mr Khanjar of seizing his partners’ assets for himself after the 2003 invasion, accusations he denies.
Asked his worth, Mr Khanjar laughed and answered: “God has been very good to me.”
Earlier this year, Mr Khanjar flew into Iraqi Kurdistan to inspect some of the 14 schools and three clinics he funds for the one million Sunnis who have settled there after being displaced from their homes across Iraq.
Dressed elegantly in a dark suit, he was greeted by dozens of Sunni children in matching blue and white uniforms. The children dutifully recited poems praising him as their rescuer from Iraq’s sectarian conflict. Iraq’s Sunnis must fight both ISIS terrorists and Iraqi governmentbacked Shia militias, he said.
“We are heading towards a borderless, bloody Sunnistan if there is no immediate action by the Iraqi government to address Sunni rights,” he told Reuters later. “Once we cross the threshold, no wise men — myself or any other — can close Pandora’s box.” Mr Khanjar argues that a federal region modelled on Iraq’s nearly independent Kurdish territory will grant Sunnis rights and help them to fight ISIS.
Khanjar insists he is trying to save his country for its sake, not his. “Anyone would like to see his country stable and secure,” he said. “If it was stable and secure, I would never have thought of going into politics.”