Iran-backed groups accuse Iraqi president of caving to U.S.
BAGHDAD — Iran-supported groups on Friday blasted Iraq’s president for not naming their preferred prime minister candidate, saying his decision was at the behest of the United States, and warned him not to designate anyone who could be “an agent of the Americans.”
In refusing to appoint Fatahbacked candidate Asaad al-Eidani on Thursday, President Barham Salih said he was responding to broad opposition by antigovernment protesters who have flooded the streets for nearly three months to demand the overthrow of Iraq’s entire political class.
The protesters accuse the government of corruption and mismanagement and have demanded an independent prime minister candidate. On Friday evening, thousands of them poured into Baghdad’s Tahrir Square to express their support for Salih’s decision.
But in a statement Friday, the Hezbollah Brigades, or Kataeb Hezbollah, called the president’s move “suspicious.”
“We know that he is carrying out an American will that aims to pull the country toward chaos,” the statement said.
Legislator Odai Awad, a member of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, called Salih a coward in an interview with a local TV station and said “every Iraqi should spit in the face of the president for what he did.”
The Iran-affiliated groups said the president had violated the constitution “by refusing to carry out his duties” to name the candidate chosen by parliament’s largest bloc.
Since last year’s elections, however, politicians have disagreed over which bloc is the largest, a dispute that has led them to twice miss the deadline for naming a new premier.
There are two main blocs in the Iraqi Parliament: Sairoon, led by populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr; and Fatah, headed by Hadi al-Amiri. But the numbers in the blocs have continued to change since the elections, with an unknown number of lawmakers leaving some blocs and joining others.
In a statement Friday, protesters called the Iran-backed groups “blocs of corruption” that are doing everything they can to ensure that sects and ethnic groups hold the country’s top posts.
Later Friday, a rocket attack Friday on an Iraqi military base killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. military service members and Iraqi personnel, according to the U.S. military command in Baghdad.
The names of the Americans were withheld, and few details were available late Friday about the attack, at the K1 military base near Kirkuk. The base is run by the Iraqi military, but it houses U.S. and partner military forces who train Iraqi security forces.
The military command in Baghdad said Iraqi security forces would lead the response and investigations.
An Iraqi military statement said that several rockets were launched at the base, according to Reuters. Security forces found a launchpad for Katyusha rockets in an abandoned vehicle nearby.
It was not clear who was responsible for the attack. U.S. forces in Iraq have been threatened by both Iranian-backed militias and the remnants of the Islamic State group.