Iraq's Abadi Asked to Form Government
by VOA News August 11, 2014
Haider al-Abadi, nominated Monday by Iraqi President Fouad Massoum to replace embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and form a new government, has called upon other Iraqis to join forces against the 'barbaric' onslaught of Islamic State fighters roiling the country's north.
Meanwhile, a member of Maliki's political bloc has vowed to fight Abadi's nomination as U.S. airstrikes have continued against militants advancing on Kurdish forces in the northeastern city of Irbil.
During a brief ceremony broadcast live on television, Massoum shook hands with Abadi – deputy speaker of parliament and an electronic engineer by training – and told him: "I hope you will be successful in forming a broader-based government."
Massoum also said on television Monday that he hoped Abadi would succeed in forming a government that would 'protect the Iraqi people.'
Iraqis had been anticipating Abadi's nomination for weeks. The presence of key Shi'ite leaders at the ceremony inside Baghdad's Green Zone indicated strong support from other Shi'ites.
But high political drama preceded his appointment, as Iraqi media reported that security forces loyal to Maliki had deployed across Baghdad and surrounded the Green Zone.
Asharqiya TV reported that the president's security guards were on high alert to protect his residence as he nominated Abadi. Some Iraqi journalists had speculated that Maliki would attempt to stop the nomination.
Maliki stands his ground
Maliki has indicated he would seek a third term as prime minister, ignoring calls by Sunnis, Kurds, fellow Shi'ites and regional power broker Iran to step aside for a less polarizing figure who can unite Iraqis against the raging Sunni insurgeny.
His son-in-law, Hussein al-Maliki, opposes the nomination, calling it 'illegal and a breach of the constitution. We will go to the federal court to object to the nomination."
A parliamentary session to discuss a new Iraqi government has been postponed until August 19.
Earlier Monday, Iraq's highest court said Maliki's bloc is the largest in parliament. Maliki had said he would file a lawsuit against Massoum for failing to nominate a new prime minister before a Sunday deadline.
Critics said Maliki alienated Sunnis, prompting them to support Islamic State militants who have seized a large chunk of northern Iraq and have threatened to march on Baghdad, posing the biggest threat to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sectarian violence has become widespread in Iraq again, reaching levels seen when a civil war peaked in 2006-2007.
US, UN support
Educated at the University of Manchester, nominee Abadi served as the head of parliament's finance committee, a political adviser to the prime minister and minister of communications. He's a low-key figure whose favorite quotation, according to his Facebook biography, is this: 'The key to leadership is tolerance.'
Ahead of the court ruling, the United States and United Nations expressed support for Massoum and the selection of a prime minister who will lead an inclusive new Iraqi government.
Vice President Joe Biden on Monday called Massoum to commend him for making the nomination and moving Iraq toward an inclusive new government government, calling it a 'key milestone,' the White House said in a statement.
Biden also emphasized the United States' interest in improving coordination with the new government and Iraqi security forces to turn back Islamist militants.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said forming a government is critical for Iraq's stability and urged Maliki to avoid inflaming the situation.
Kerry, speaking Monday from Australia, where he and U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have arrived for a meeting in Sydney Tuesday, said Iraqis 'need to know that there will be little international support of any kind whatsoever for anything that deviates from the legitimate constitutional process that is in place and being worked on now. They need to finish that and give a new government an opportunity to be voted on and move forward.'
U.S. forces are attempting to blunt an offensive by the extremist Islamic State group that threatens to overrun Irbil, the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Hagel said three days of American airstrikes against Islamic State forces have been 'very effective.'
However, Reuters reported Monday that the militants continued to make gains against the Kurds. The news agency also said Baghdad was bracing for potential conflict between supporters of Maliki and rvals within the Shi'ite majority.
The United States will 'continue to support the Iraqi security forces in every way that we can as they request assistance there,' Hagel said, 'and we will again build partnerships as we are now, recognizing the threat not just to the United States but to the civilized world.'
The U.S. defense chief said Australia, Britain and France are working with the U.S. to supply humanitarian aid for the thousands of displaced Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities trapped in the area, many of them atop Mount Sinjar.
Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special representative for Iraq, said Monday the president is acting in line with the constitution and called on Iraqi security forces to refrain from actions that could be seen at interfering in the political process.
US consulate staff temporarily withdrawn
Late Sunday, the U.S. State Department said it had temporarily removed some staff from the U.S. consulate in Irbil.
A statement said some of the personnel were dispatched to the southern city of Basra, and others to the Jordanian capital, Amman. It said the move was made 'out of an abundance of caution rather than any one specific threat.'
The International Organization for Migration says the number of internally displaced people in Iraq now totals more than 1 million.
Analysts weigh in on Maliki
U.S. officials and many Western analysts said Maliki, a Shi'ite, has failed to unify the divided country since taking office. They described him as increasingly unacceptable to Iraq's Sunni Muslims, to Kurds and to many of his fellow Shi'ites.
RAND Corp. analyst Patrick Johnston said the court case is another sign that Maliki is more interested in maintaining his own position than confronting the challenges facing his country.
'It's just the most brash and brazen form of misbehavior and political conflict that we've seen from Prime Minister Maliki, the corruption, the negligence in terms of developing the security services, as we've seen the Islamic State [militants] go on the offensive and take over large chunks of the country,' Johnston said.
'Maliki has been primarily focused on keeping his own job and his grasp on power,' Johnston added.
Paul Sullivan, a Middle East expert at Georgetown University, told VOA he doubted Abadi would have accepted the nomination without "significant support from some of the powerful people in power centers of the Shia community."
He questioned whether Maliki would agree to go quietly 'and reasonably move forward on other things or go to battle on this, either politically or physically,' Sullivan said. 'He doesn't seem to be willing to back down on this."
Sullivan said he thought many in Maliki's own party 'have turned on him,' but he worries that Abadi belongs to the conservative Shi'ite Da'awa Party, which many Sunnis don't look upon favorably.
VOA's Edward Yeranian contributed to this report. Material also was provided by Reuters, AP and AFP.
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