Haider al-Abadi and the current political crisis

On the background of storming the Iraqi Council of Representatives by the supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, in the Green Zone Iraqi President Fuad Masum, who feared the collapse of the existing political system since 2003, called on the three presidencies to hold a meeting to “discuss the repercussions of the events and to accelerate reforms,” with the presence of the parliamentary and political blocs. The meeting among them did not achieve any resolution to end the current political crisis in Iraq and the positions and statements are varied .While the body of the Iraqi presidency condemned , distributed at the end of the meeting , ” storming the Iraqi Council of Representatives and the attack on the number of members of the Council”, saying that “what happened is seriously exceeded the prestige of the state.” He asked “to sue the assailants to justice because it constitutes a flagrant violation of the constitutional framework.”

The head of the National Coalition, Iyad Allawi, described a meeting of the three presidencies, as “disappointing for hopes” and said in a letter addressed to the President of the Republic Fuad Masum, that he “would not attend such meetings in the future.” Iyad Allawi assured in his letter to Iraqi President Fuad Masum, the following: “I suggested such a meeting, and was surprised in trying to leave the essential things such as the discussion of the political process and the decline of reforms .and he added ” “The interesting of the attendees was focused on trying to weaken the idea of demonstrations and sit-ins under the pretext of the link between the sit inns and peaceful protesters on the one hand and between the infiltrators who violated the sanctity of the House of Representatives and assaulted some lawmakers on the other hand.” He explained- Iyad Allawi, -“I found out that there was no intention of real reform with the exception of a few attendees, and there is no desire to discuss the fundamental problems, but clinging to the apparent meaning of what happened without discussing the reasons of the crisis ,” explaining, “I would like to inform you that I will not attend any meeting of this level of discussion that does not rise to address the roots of the crisis for the country to reach the shore of safety, peace and stability. “

The head of the National Coalition, Iyad Allawi earlier called for the establishment of an early fair elections under UN supervision after the political process has reached to the deadlock , because of the clinging of the politicians to the chairs and quotas and did not pay attention to the demands of the people. Noting in a statement released by his office that the the presidency of the republic is the only destination that can be depended upon now to cross the political crisis through many options, including the formation of a new national salvation government for a year. the position of the head of the Arab coalition , Salih mutlaq is dramatically agreed with Iyad Allawi’s position as he demanded from President of the Republic Fuad Masum to send a letter to withdraw confidence from the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and also called for the formation of a national salvation government. For his part, Hadi al-Amiri put full responsibility on the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for the storming of supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr in the Green Zone to be known later on by Iraqis as the events of thirtieth of April , and asked him to resign from the premiership.

This intrusion, which constitutes –till now- the latest manifestation of the political crisis in Iraq that there is motion by some Iraqi politicians against Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri to settle personal scores with him, but this movement fails, then it was moved to the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for the settlement of issues to be given the priority on the account of national considerations and burden him all the pitfalls of Iraq. Note that he is not in charge of those pitfalls and disasters that he is experienced at all levels.

When Haider al-Abadi assumed the power as prime minister , the Iraqi political system was suffering from several deep crisis such as the social crisis as the sectarianism has torn the Iraqi society and created psychological anticipation in the minds of Iraqi citizens towards each other, and in vain this sectarianism embodied the term alien to the Iraqi culture, a term the “other” !. He has also assumed his post while Iraq is suffering a severe economic crisis, the country is financially bankrupt and the reason for the bankruptcy is the corruption that hit all the joints of the Iraqi political system, and in this context, the reports of the Transparency International agency confirm that Iraq is still till now and for 13 years at the forefront of the most corrupt countries in the world , where a recent report of the agency revealed that 29 percent of Iraqis admitted in a survey that they gave bribes to security officials, judges and senior administrators, as this phenomenon is rampant in the real estate, health services, taxes and registration services like water, electricity and others. A number of experts stressed that the weakness of the state and its organs and not being able to play its role in the providing of public services to citizens, are the main reasons behind the spread of the phenomena of corruption conjoined organically to the senior political officials in the state, especially in light of a recent press reports and leaks about the huge funds acquired by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and some of his ministers during their rule of Iraq.

In addition to those two crises, the security crisis was emerged noting that the man , Haider al-Abadi received the premiership of Iraq at a time when state regulation in Iraq and the Levant “Daash” the terrorist , dominated in June in 2014 on several Iraqi provinces dominated by Sunni community. How can any prime minister to achieve any achievement with these sharp social, economic and security crises ? However , the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi did not give up and he continued to fight al “Daash” the terrorist “, and in parallel , he put his reformist project to get Iraq out from its crises, and this project, which began in the implementation of some paragraphs such as abolishing the post of Vice President of the Republic is the reason that made yesterday’s allies to be the opponents of today !.

There is no doubt that any one who has the reform project for his country should be far from the practice of sectarianism in his internal policies, as this is calculated for the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Since assuming the presidency of the Iraqi government in August 2014, as he has not practiced sectarianism against the Sunni component and the proof of this, though, furious statements ” by some Sunee politicians or parliamentarians against Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, but he has not arrested any one of them as the other one did against his opponents “the Sunee” as taking the same position in that day, the opponents were either in detention or in exile or underground. There is no doubt also that the one who has a reformist project for his country should rejects violence against his opponents of the people of his country, although the storming of supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr to the Green Zone, he did not tend to resort to use violence against unarmed demonstrators, but to deal with the difficult situation wisely as any statesman that he predominates the national interest over the personal and functional considerations , however , it is not permitted to shed blood of the citizens just because of the contrast -even though it was sharp in political positions. And he was only satisfied with lawsuits against intruders of Green Zone, this act is a civilized behavior in political work and the democratic system, which Iraq and its policy is in urgent need.

The current political crisis in Iraq, although it is the internal Iraqi crisis but its echo is on the Arab and regional level “Turkey” and on the international level is the “United States of America, all these levels supports legitimacy in Iraq and stands against intrusion process. In the most prominent statement and the position of the United States of America from the political crisis following the events of breaking into the Green Zone and the building of the Iraqi parliament on Saturday. the US Secretary of Defense, “Ashton Carter said ,” that the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is in a “strong position” despite the current crisis, as he emphasized that his country would continue its support. The United States will continue to support al-Abadi.” It is understood from this statement that the United States is trying hard to keep the political process in Iraq and its democratic system and stick to the heads of the three presidencies in office.

It should be noted here about the rumors of an attempted coup against the legitimate by the staff General Talip Alchigani the commander in chief of the joint forces in Iraq and Zuhair Gharbaoui ,the intelligence chief, Imad Kahiah and Imad Khersan, forming a rescue Government, is untrue, because there is no loyalty for the Iraqi military establishment in the present time, but multiple loyalties and this is due to the fact that military institution has lost its military structure and thus allegiances are varied inside it .

There is no doubt that Iraq’s return to the era of military coups during the decade of the fifties and sixties of the elapsed century, and in this time that Iraq is going through, it means entering in a bitter struggle that paves for the control of the “parallel state” known as the state of the militias that have emerged on the Iraqi scene strongly after 2003, so Iraq to be ruled by it is not in its interests first and not for the interests of others that the United States will not allow to happen being involved in the success of the democratic experiment in Iraq because Iraq’s stability is the stability of the entire region.

In conclusion, the current political crisis in Iraq is the culmination of a crisis that its age is part from the age of the current system that was set up by the US occupation on a fragile foundation, and the Iraqi politicians did not make real effort to strengthen and empower it, if only because they are not sure of its viability. The crisis is not embodied in the person of the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as the political opponents like to link between them. The crisis is deeper and more comprehensive.

Rawabet Research and Strategic Studies Center