National Post (National Edition)
Bid to oust Maliki roils Baghdad
BAGHDA D • Iraq’s president formally nominated a candidate Monday to replace Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. The step broke a monthslong political deadlock, but it also seemed to take Iraq into uncharted territory, as Mr. Maliki gave no signal he was willing to relinquish power.
The nomination of Haider Al-Abadi, a member of Mr. Maliki’s Shiite Islamist Dawa Party, came hours after a defiant Mr. Maliki appeared on latenight television, challenging the Iraqi president, Fouad Massoum, and threatening legal action for not choosing him as the nominee. As he spoke extra security forces, including special forces units loyal to Mr. Maliki, as well as tanks, locked down the fortified Green Zone of government buildings and took up positions around the city.
Soldiers manned numerous checkpoints Monday. The atmosphere in the capital was tense.
There were no immediate signs Mr. Maliki had taken further steps to use military force to guarantee his survival.
But his late-night television appearance, in which he appeared to be trying to intimidate Mr. Massoum by mentioning the army in the context of protecting the constitution, alarmed U.S. officials and left Baghdad residents wondering if a coup was imminent.
Under Iraq’s constitution, Mr. Abadi has 30 days in which to form a government that offers meaningful positions to the country’s main minority factions, Sunnis and Kurds. Mr. Maliki will remain as a caretaker leader and commanderin-chief of the security forces.
The United States has been reluctant to help the Iraqi government militarily as long as it is led by Mr. Maliki, a Shiite Islamist seen by many as exacerbating sectarian and ethnic tensions, alienating some Sunnis and driving them to join the militants.
Even many who are opposed to his coalition appeared ready to accept someone else from inside it. “Really at this point, I think it’s anybody but Maliki,” said a Kurdish politician. Whether Mr. Maliki will accept someone else from his bloc in the top spot remains unclear.
“The risk is, if he clings to power, he will control the
If he clings to power, he will control the country by force
country by force,” said another senior Iraqi politician. “This would be a military coup.”
John Kerry, the U.S. secre tar y of state, warned Mr. Maliki must back the constitutional process and not attempt to circumvent it by using his powers as commander in chief. “There should be no use of force, no introduction of troops or militias into this moment of democracy for Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said in Sydney, Australia, where he was meeting government leaders.
If Mr. Maliki were to call on the Iraqi army to back his effort to stay in power, he could face resistance from one or several of the many militia groups that have close ties to political parties.
“We’re all worried about a coup d’état,” said General Halgurd Hikmet, chief spokesman for Kurdish fighters in Iraq, known as peshmerga. “Maliki has to know that we have two major units of our troops guarding the parliament and the Defence Ministry.”
There are also forces loyal to the influential Shiite cleric, Moqtada Al-Sadr, who oppose Mr. Maliki and are numerous in Baghdad. Then there are the fighters of the Badr Corps, who are technically part of the Iraqi army but remain closely tied to Hadi Al-Ameri, a powerful Shiite MP with links to Iran. Whether Badr fighters back Mr. Maliki or move against him could help determine whether he survives in office.