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2 Sunni Leaders Denounce Lack of Role in Iraqi Government
5/11/2015
WASHINGTON — One month after Iraq’s prime minister assured American officials here that his Shiite-dominated government was striving to build a multisectarian state, two leading Sunni politicians said Monday that Sunnis were being squeezed out of the country’s political system.
“Are we part of Iraq?” Rafe al-Essawi, a former deputy prime minister and one of the leading Sunni figures in Iraq, said in an address at the Brookings Institution. Sunnis are looking to see “if there is any benefit in political participation.”
Appearing at the same event, Atheel al-Nujaifi, the governor of the embattled Nineveh Province, complained that the Iraqi government had yet to provide weapons to thousands of Sunni fighters eager to join an eventual military operation to retake Mosul, the provincial capital, from the Islamic State militant group.
So wary are the Sunnis of the authorities in Baghdad that Mr. Nujaifi urged that Nineveh Province be granted autonomy if Islamic State fighters were evicted, though as part of an Iraqi federal system.
“What comes after the battle is crucial,” he said. “I believe that authority in Iraq should be split up, but not Iraq itself.”
When Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi came to the White House last month, President Obama praised him for reaching out to the Kurdish and Sunni minorities. But the parade of Iraqi visitors in recent months has put Iraq’s fractious politics on display.
In a visit here last week, Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous region, made clear it that the Kurds had delayed, but not shelved, their dream of independence. Underscoring that point, he said in a presentation at the Atlantic Council that the unity of Iraq was “voluntary and not compulsory.”
In his remarks on Monday, Mr. Essawi said that he did not believe that Mr. Abadi was overtly sectarian, an accusation that was often directed at the prime minister’s predecessor, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
“He inherited a very damaged political and security situation, “ Mr. Essawi said of Mr. Abadi. “He is a good guy.”
But the thrust of the Sunni criticism was that Mr. Abadi had been too weak to bring about long-promised power-sharing arrangements and that a stronger American hand was needed to encourage change.
The overdue reforms, they said, include the establishment of national guard units, a move that American officials have encouraged as a way to empower local Iraqis but that is still being debated by the Iraqi Parliament.
They also argued for dismantling the Shiite militias, particularly those that are advised and equipped by Iran. Given the weakness of the Iraqi Army, however, it is unlikely that the Iraqi government will get rid of most of the militias, which are known in Iraq as the popular mobilization forces.
Mr. Essawi said that Sunnis were poorly represented in the upper ranks of the Iraqi government and in the Iraq military. Legislation that would remove the barriers that prevent former ranking Baathists from playing a political role, he noted, has still not been passed.
During their visit to Washington this week, Mr. Essawi and Mr. Nujaifi plan to meet with State Department officials and lawmakers.
When Mr. Maliki was prime minister, Mr. Essawi became such a prominent voice of the political opposition that he was threatened with arrest and left Baghdad.
Even with the arrival of Mr. Abadi, Mr. Essawi is still cautious, splitting his time between the Kurdish city of Erbil and Amman, Jordan. The gestures that have been made to the Sunni population, he said in an interview on Sunday, have been more rhetorical than real.
“It’s like having a patient who needs 300 grams of protein to stay alive, and you give him one gram,” said Mr. Essawi, who was trained as a medical doctor and once served as the head of a hospital in Falluja, Iraq. “This is not a way of keeping him alive. You are just killing him very slowly.
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5/11/2015
WASHINGTON — One month after Iraq’s prime minister assured American officials here that his Shiite-dominated government was striving to build a multisectarian state, two leading Sunni politicians said Monday that Sunnis were being squeezed out of the country’s political system.
“Are we part of Iraq?” Rafe al-Essawi, a former deputy prime minister and one of the leading Sunni figures in Iraq, said in an address at the Brookings Institution. Sunnis are looking to see “if there is any benefit in political participation.”
Appearing at the same event, Atheel al-Nujaifi, the governor of the embattled Nineveh Province, complained that the Iraqi government had yet to provide weapons to thousands of Sunni fighters eager to join an eventual military operation to retake Mosul, the provincial capital, from the Islamic State militant group.
So wary are the Sunnis of the authorities in Baghdad that Mr. Nujaifi urged that Nineveh Province be granted autonomy if Islamic State fighters were evicted, though as part of an Iraqi federal system.
“What comes after the battle is crucial,” he said. “I believe that authority in Iraq should be split up, but not Iraq itself.”
When Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi came to the White House last month, President Obama praised him for reaching out to the Kurdish and Sunni minorities. But the parade of Iraqi visitors in recent months has put Iraq’s fractious politics on display.
In a visit here last week, Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous region, made clear it that the Kurds had delayed, but not shelved, their dream of independence. Underscoring that point, he said in a presentation at the Atlantic Council that the unity of Iraq was “voluntary and not compulsory.”
In his remarks on Monday, Mr. Essawi said that he did not believe that Mr. Abadi was overtly sectarian, an accusation that was often directed at the prime minister’s predecessor, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
“He inherited a very damaged political and security situation, “ Mr. Essawi said of Mr. Abadi. “He is a good guy.”
But the thrust of the Sunni criticism was that Mr. Abadi had been too weak to bring about long-promised power-sharing arrangements and that a stronger American hand was needed to encourage change.
The overdue reforms, they said, include the establishment of national guard units, a move that American officials have encouraged as a way to empower local Iraqis but that is still being debated by the Iraqi Parliament.
They also argued for dismantling the Shiite militias, particularly those that are advised and equipped by Iran. Given the weakness of the Iraqi Army, however, it is unlikely that the Iraqi government will get rid of most of the militias, which are known in Iraq as the popular mobilization forces.
Mr. Essawi said that Sunnis were poorly represented in the upper ranks of the Iraqi government and in the Iraq military. Legislation that would remove the barriers that prevent former ranking Baathists from playing a political role, he noted, has still not been passed.
During their visit to Washington this week, Mr. Essawi and Mr. Nujaifi plan to meet with State Department officials and lawmakers.
When Mr. Maliki was prime minister, Mr. Essawi became such a prominent voice of the political opposition that he was threatened with arrest and left Baghdad.
Even with the arrival of Mr. Abadi, Mr. Essawi is still cautious, splitting his time between the Kurdish city of Erbil and Amman, Jordan. The gestures that have been made to the Sunni population, he said in an interview on Sunday, have been more rhetorical than real.
“It’s like having a patient who needs 300 grams of protein to stay alive, and you give him one gram,” said Mr. Essawi, who was trained as a medical doctor and once served as the head of a hospital in Falluja, Iraq. “This is not a way of keeping him alive. You are just killing him very slowly.
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