Home
Iraq's former leader still looms large months after his ouster
March 31 at 5:15 AM
BAGHDAD – Inside the walls of his shaded villa in the heart of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone,Nouri al-Maliki still greets his visitors in the same marble floored office where he worked for eight years as prime minister.
As one of the country’s three vice presidents, he now holds a largely ceremonial position, in the government of his successor, Haidar al-Abadi.
But whether Maliki has given up his quest for power is increasingly in question as he sets about a series of widely publicized battlefield tours, meetings with tribal elders and visits abroad.
In an interview at his Green Zone villa, he denied seeking to reclaim his former position, and pledged support for Abadi, who six months into the job is attempting to quell the chaos convulsing Iraq. Maliki has been widely blamed for much of it, with his failure to reach out to Sunnis and policies widely seen as sectarian.
But he does not rule out that he could one day return.
“Based on my popular support base, which still exists and is strong, it's possible,” he said, indicating that he is setting his sights on Iraq’s next election, due in 2018.
“Legally and constitutionally, it's possible,” he said. “But it’s the Iraqi people’s choice.”
Maliki's looming presence presents a continued challenge for Abadi as he attempts to win back ground from the extremists and repair rifts with Iraq's Sunnis and Kurds. Meanwhile, an offensive to retake Tikrit has highlighted the premier's lack of control over the array of Shiite volunteers and militias that are leading it.
“He still has a role and he’s not finished,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a parliamentarian with Maliki's state of law bloc. “We haven’t seen the end of Maliki.”
A Western diplomat based in the region said there are deep concerns about what Maliki may be up to, with no doubt that he is trying to undermine Abadi. “He’s irredeemable,” he said.
Maliki appears to wield influence over more members of parliament than Abadi, with more support in the security institutions, he said. However, others doubt his reach, contending he has little chance of a comeback.
On a March trip to a recently cleared town near Tikrit to meet fighters who had driven out Islamic State militants, Maliki greeted the forces as if he were still in power. He said it’s natural that some security forces would feel a sense of loyalty to him.
Since leaving power, he has become a particular champion of the legions of largely Shiite volunteers and militias known as the “popular mobilizations” – many of whom answered a call from Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric to sign up to fight.
“I established it in my time,” he says of the volunteer force that mustered in the dying days of Maliki’s leadership and has led the battle in the city of Tikrit. “And they feel very close to me, or may be loyal to me. Therefore I keep working with them and supporting them and pushing them to fight.”
Maliki is senior to Abadi in their party, Dawa, holding the title of secretary general of the party. Some Dawa members mockingly refer to Abadi as “the traffic warden,” a reference to the fact that although he nominally runs the government, his actual power is in question.
Though they hail from the same party, the two men have drastically different ruling styles – perhaps rooted in their disparate experiences of exile during the rule of Saddam Hussein. While Abadi, an English-speaker who worked as an electrical engineer in Britain, is seen as cozy with the West, Maliki whose U.S. backing fell away in the final years of his rule, is closer to Iran, where he lived for seven years.
On billboards around Baghdad, Maliki’s pictures still loom large. Abadi, in contrast, has ordered that no posters of him be displayed, in an attempt to break with the country’s tradition of leaders with personality cults.
When Maliki ventures from the Green Zone, he does so in a big convoy of armored SUVs. Abadi won plaudits for publicly visiting a shrine in Baghdad accompanied by only twobodyguards. While Abadi shuns honorifics, Maliki has dubbed himself “first vice president” – though in the past there’s been no differentiation between the three.
Their rivalry is thinly veiled.
“What he’s doing is what’s possible — not the ambition that is required, but what’s possible,” Maliki said pointedly of Abadi’s progress, though he added that his successor is constrained by the country’s shaky finances and fragile security.
He is quick to point out what he sees as flaws in his Abadi’s policies. The much lauded oil export deal with the Kurds – heralded as a sign that the new prime minister was capable of papering over the rifts that divided the country under Maliki — is unconstitutional, he claims, as it allows for Erbil to export some oil independently.
On the proposal for a national guard, a new system of localized security forces that is a cornerstone of Abadi’s security policy: “I’m the one who suggested it, but not in the way it has developed recently. It’s become a danger to national unity,” Maliki said.
The competition has sparked rumors of splits within the Dawa party.
“There are people close to Nouri al-Maliki who are trying to make some problems, talking against Haider al-Abaidi,” concedes Ali Alaq, a senior Dawa member, though he dismisses the notion that there’s any rift. “Nouri al-Maliki says he has nothing to do with them,” he adds.
In his home in the upscale Baghdad neighborhood of Mansoor, Saad al-Muttalibi, is one of Maliki’s allies who is less than flattering of the new leader, despite claiming that Abadi is an old friend.
“Mr. Abadi isn’t as hands-on as Maliki,” said the Baghdad provincial council member, a picture of the former leader hanging on the wall behind him. “I don’t know if he’s trying to show himself as a technocrat, or if it’s just inability.” He describes Abadi as “indecisive” and gibes that he has put on weight – stress eating that indicates he can’t deal with the pressure. Parliamentarians are rallying to support Maliki, he said.
Known for his unrelenting work ethic, Maliki has kept up a hectic schedule since leaving power.
When Abadi made his first visit to Iran last year, Maliki followed a few weeks later, also meeting with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Maliki said that Iraq's relationships with Iran and the United States were once “balanced” — but that had shifted since the United States failed to fulfil its security agreement with Baghdad, he claimed, refering to the deal signed by the Bush administration which the United States committed itself to defend Iraq’s democracy and territorial integrity.
“America has not provided anything for us,” he said.“We have an agreement and we asked them, we asked them to bomb with their planes, we asked for more weapons from them to face the developed weapons that [Islamic State] has, but we don’t know why they didn’t respond.”
U.S. officials have justified their decision to condition air strikes on Maliki’s departure by saying a new leader was essential if Iraq was to overcome the sectarianism that had fueled the Islamic State’s rise.
Maliki still claims that the decision to nominate Abadi to form a government last summer was “illegal” after he won the highest proportion of votes.
“All the laws and procedures indicated that Al-Maliki should have a third term,” said Maliki, who has a habit of referring to himself in the third person. However, he claims that the issue is behind him now. “Today we have to cooperate in the process of building the country and facing the challenges,” he said. “Therefore I’m keen for this government to succeed.”
That feeling of betrayal may be spurring him to launch a comeback however, and with Iran playing a powerful role in Iraq, it's Maliki who stands to gain.
Abadi is not a natural ally of Iran, which initially blocked his nomination for the premiership in a country where Tehran wield's significant influence over the politics of its neighbor. Tehran only relented at the eleventh hour, as Iraq was on the brink of collapse.
Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni parliamentarian and member of parliament's defense and security committee claimed that Iran is now trying to undermine Abadi, who has U.S. support.
“Iran has a lot of power in Iraq," he said. “They make problems when someone is not obeying them, and one of their soldiers is Maliki.”
Whether he can in fact make a comeback is an intense subject of speculation.
Izzat Shahbandar, a former MP with Maliki’s State of Law coalition, said whether he likes it or not, Maliki is finished.
“He had a big failure in administering the country,” said Shahbandar, who remains friends with Maliki, meeting him last month at his home. “There is no Iraqi power, Sunni, Shia or anyone else who will support him."
Asked why it is, therefore, that Maliki believes he can make a comeback, he chuckled:
“Saddam Hussein is dead and even he believes he can make a comeback.”
“This is what power does to you,” he added.
Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
March 31 at 5:15 AM
BAGHDAD – Inside the walls of his shaded villa in the heart of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone,Nouri al-Maliki still greets his visitors in the same marble floored office where he worked for eight years as prime minister.
As one of the country’s three vice presidents, he now holds a largely ceremonial position, in the government of his successor, Haidar al-Abadi.
But whether Maliki has given up his quest for power is increasingly in question as he sets about a series of widely publicized battlefield tours, meetings with tribal elders and visits abroad.
In an interview at his Green Zone villa, he denied seeking to reclaim his former position, and pledged support for Abadi, who six months into the job is attempting to quell the chaos convulsing Iraq. Maliki has been widely blamed for much of it, with his failure to reach out to Sunnis and policies widely seen as sectarian.
But he does not rule out that he could one day return.
“Based on my popular support base, which still exists and is strong, it's possible,” he said, indicating that he is setting his sights on Iraq’s next election, due in 2018.
“Legally and constitutionally, it's possible,” he said. “But it’s the Iraqi people’s choice.”
Maliki's looming presence presents a continued challenge for Abadi as he attempts to win back ground from the extremists and repair rifts with Iraq's Sunnis and Kurds. Meanwhile, an offensive to retake Tikrit has highlighted the premier's lack of control over the array of Shiite volunteers and militias that are leading it.
“He still has a role and he’s not finished,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a parliamentarian with Maliki's state of law bloc. “We haven’t seen the end of Maliki.”
A Western diplomat based in the region said there are deep concerns about what Maliki may be up to, with no doubt that he is trying to undermine Abadi. “He’s irredeemable,” he said.
Maliki appears to wield influence over more members of parliament than Abadi, with more support in the security institutions, he said. However, others doubt his reach, contending he has little chance of a comeback.
On a March trip to a recently cleared town near Tikrit to meet fighters who had driven out Islamic State militants, Maliki greeted the forces as if he were still in power. He said it’s natural that some security forces would feel a sense of loyalty to him.
Since leaving power, he has become a particular champion of the legions of largely Shiite volunteers and militias known as the “popular mobilizations” – many of whom answered a call from Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric to sign up to fight.
“I established it in my time,” he says of the volunteer force that mustered in the dying days of Maliki’s leadership and has led the battle in the city of Tikrit. “And they feel very close to me, or may be loyal to me. Therefore I keep working with them and supporting them and pushing them to fight.”
Maliki is senior to Abadi in their party, Dawa, holding the title of secretary general of the party. Some Dawa members mockingly refer to Abadi as “the traffic warden,” a reference to the fact that although he nominally runs the government, his actual power is in question.
Though they hail from the same party, the two men have drastically different ruling styles – perhaps rooted in their disparate experiences of exile during the rule of Saddam Hussein. While Abadi, an English-speaker who worked as an electrical engineer in Britain, is seen as cozy with the West, Maliki whose U.S. backing fell away in the final years of his rule, is closer to Iran, where he lived for seven years.
On billboards around Baghdad, Maliki’s pictures still loom large. Abadi, in contrast, has ordered that no posters of him be displayed, in an attempt to break with the country’s tradition of leaders with personality cults.
When Maliki ventures from the Green Zone, he does so in a big convoy of armored SUVs. Abadi won plaudits for publicly visiting a shrine in Baghdad accompanied by only twobodyguards. While Abadi shuns honorifics, Maliki has dubbed himself “first vice president” – though in the past there’s been no differentiation between the three.
Their rivalry is thinly veiled.
“What he’s doing is what’s possible — not the ambition that is required, but what’s possible,” Maliki said pointedly of Abadi’s progress, though he added that his successor is constrained by the country’s shaky finances and fragile security.
He is quick to point out what he sees as flaws in his Abadi’s policies. The much lauded oil export deal with the Kurds – heralded as a sign that the new prime minister was capable of papering over the rifts that divided the country under Maliki — is unconstitutional, he claims, as it allows for Erbil to export some oil independently.
On the proposal for a national guard, a new system of localized security forces that is a cornerstone of Abadi’s security policy: “I’m the one who suggested it, but not in the way it has developed recently. It’s become a danger to national unity,” Maliki said.
The competition has sparked rumors of splits within the Dawa party.
“There are people close to Nouri al-Maliki who are trying to make some problems, talking against Haider al-Abaidi,” concedes Ali Alaq, a senior Dawa member, though he dismisses the notion that there’s any rift. “Nouri al-Maliki says he has nothing to do with them,” he adds.
In his home in the upscale Baghdad neighborhood of Mansoor, Saad al-Muttalibi, is one of Maliki’s allies who is less than flattering of the new leader, despite claiming that Abadi is an old friend.
“Mr. Abadi isn’t as hands-on as Maliki,” said the Baghdad provincial council member, a picture of the former leader hanging on the wall behind him. “I don’t know if he’s trying to show himself as a technocrat, or if it’s just inability.” He describes Abadi as “indecisive” and gibes that he has put on weight – stress eating that indicates he can’t deal with the pressure. Parliamentarians are rallying to support Maliki, he said.
Known for his unrelenting work ethic, Maliki has kept up a hectic schedule since leaving power.
When Abadi made his first visit to Iran last year, Maliki followed a few weeks later, also meeting with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Maliki said that Iraq's relationships with Iran and the United States were once “balanced” — but that had shifted since the United States failed to fulfil its security agreement with Baghdad, he claimed, refering to the deal signed by the Bush administration which the United States committed itself to defend Iraq’s democracy and territorial integrity.
“America has not provided anything for us,” he said.“We have an agreement and we asked them, we asked them to bomb with their planes, we asked for more weapons from them to face the developed weapons that [Islamic State] has, but we don’t know why they didn’t respond.”
U.S. officials have justified their decision to condition air strikes on Maliki’s departure by saying a new leader was essential if Iraq was to overcome the sectarianism that had fueled the Islamic State’s rise.
Maliki still claims that the decision to nominate Abadi to form a government last summer was “illegal” after he won the highest proportion of votes.
“All the laws and procedures indicated that Al-Maliki should have a third term,” said Maliki, who has a habit of referring to himself in the third person. However, he claims that the issue is behind him now. “Today we have to cooperate in the process of building the country and facing the challenges,” he said. “Therefore I’m keen for this government to succeed.”
That feeling of betrayal may be spurring him to launch a comeback however, and with Iran playing a powerful role in Iraq, it's Maliki who stands to gain.
Abadi is not a natural ally of Iran, which initially blocked his nomination for the premiership in a country where Tehran wield's significant influence over the politics of its neighbor. Tehran only relented at the eleventh hour, as Iraq was on the brink of collapse.
Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni parliamentarian and member of parliament's defense and security committee claimed that Iran is now trying to undermine Abadi, who has U.S. support.
“Iran has a lot of power in Iraq," he said. “They make problems when someone is not obeying them, and one of their soldiers is Maliki.”
Whether he can in fact make a comeback is an intense subject of speculation.
Izzat Shahbandar, a former MP with Maliki’s State of Law coalition, said whether he likes it or not, Maliki is finished.
“He had a big failure in administering the country,” said Shahbandar, who remains friends with Maliki, meeting him last month at his home. “There is no Iraqi power, Sunni, Shia or anyone else who will support him."
Asked why it is, therefore, that Maliki believes he can make a comeback, he chuckled:
“Saddam Hussein is dead and even he believes he can make a comeback.”
“This is what power does to you,” he added.
Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
