Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki talks with Kurdish MPs in the Baghdad, Iraq, on July 1, 2014.
In a late-night address on state TV yesterday, Maliki defied pressure from some fellow Shiite political figures and U.S. President Barack Obama to step aside. The refusal threatens to extend a three-month political stalemate that’s helped the militant Sunni fighters of the Islamic State seize swaths of the country.
A sense of crisis spread across Baghdad. In the Sunni Ameriya neighborhood, Ahmed al-Nidawi said by phone that people huddled in their homes throughout the day after armored vehicles and Iraqi soldiers with U.S.-supplied M4 carbines took up
positions. In the mixed Sunni-Shiite Zayouna neighborhood, Saddam al-Bayati said soldiers and Shiite militiamen were patrolling “like I’ve never seen before.”
Maliki called President Fouad Masoum’s nomination of Abadi, the deputy speaker of the Parliament, “legally worthless.” Maliki demanded that he be designated to select the new cabinet and serve a third term.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the Prime Minister's Office in Baghdad on June 23, 2014.
Blaming Maliki
As the U.S. continued limited air strikes against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, Obama called the selection of Abadi a “promising step” and didn’t make even a mention of Maliki in brief remarks during his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.“I urge all Iraqi political leaders to work peacefully through the political process in the days ahead,” he said.
The U.S. and some Iraqi leaders have blamed Maliki’s divisive policies for the success of the Sunni insurgents and Obama has tied expanded U.S. military strikes to formation of a more inclusive government to ease sectarian and ethnic divisions. U.S. airstrikes so far are having only a “temporary effect” on thwarting the militants in northern Iraq, U.S. Lieutenant General William Mayville told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.
“As I said when I authorized these operations, there is no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq,” Obama said. “The only lasting solution is for Iraqis to come together and form an inclusive government.”
U.S. Warning
Masoum earlier yesterday asked Abadi, who like Maliki is a Shiite and a member of Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party, to try to form a new cabinet. Masoum tapped Abadi hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry publicly pulled support from Maliki, warning him not to hinder the political process while the country is under threat from the Islamic State.Speaking in Sydney today, Kerry said the U.S. is “prepared to consider additional political, economic and security options as Iraq starts to build a new government.”
Maliki said that Masoum violated the Iraqi constitution in not selecting him to form the cabinet because his State of Law bloc was the top vote-getter in the April parliamentary elections. Maliki, who came to power in 2006 with U.S. backing, remains prime minister and commander-in-chief of the security forces until a successor takes office.
“We are the largest bloc in the parliament and have the right to form the government,” Maliki said.
His rejection of Abadi could lead to strife and violence within the country’s majority religious group even as the Sunni militants in the north push into Shiite and Kurdish areas of the country.
Maliki’s Control
“Maliki has consolidated control over the security apparatus by establishing extra-constitutional security bodies and creating a direct chain of command from commanders to his office,” Meda Al Rowas, senior Middle East analyst at IHS Country Risk, said in a note to clients. “This increases the risk of Maliki’s rivals, who have access to their own militias, using force to attempt to remove Maliki, raising the risk of Shia-Shia infighting within the capital, and subsequently civil war risks affecting southern provinces.”Amid the tensions in Baghdad, Obama said he and Vice President Joe Biden called Abadi “to congratulate him and to urge him to form a new cabinet as quickly as possible, one that’s inclusive of all Iraqis.”
More Airstrikes
The U.S. military conducted additional airstrikes against Islamic State targets near Erbil, the U.S. Central Command said in statements yesterday. The U.S. has carried out 19 targeted airstrikes since Aug. 8, using a combination of fighter jets and armed drones, according to the Pentagon.The strikes haven’t been extensive enough to contain the militants or reduce their capabilities, said Mayville, who is director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We’ve had a very temporary effect, and we may have blunted some tactical decisions” by Islamic State militants to move farther east toward Erbil, the Kurdish regional capital, Mayville said at his Pentagon briefing. There are no plans to expand air operations beyond the limited mission of protecting U.S. personnel on the ground in Erbil and aiding civilians facing a humanitarian crisis, Mayville said.
Emergency Supplies
The U.S. also has provided food and water to civilians, most of them members of the Yezidi religious sect, trapped on Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border, who have been threatened with slaughter if they return to their homes.The Defense Department has flown 14 successful missions over four nights, providing 16,000 gallons of water and 75,000 meals, Mayville said. Iraqi forces also have brought in supplies by helicopter and carried out some civilians.
Estimates of the number of civilians stranded on the mountain have ranged from thousands to tens of thousands, Mayville said. Airstrikes yesterday were concentrated on militant checkpoints near Sinjar mountain to aid displaced Yezidis, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command.
Kurdish forces were able to retake the towns of Makhmour and Gwer, south of Erbil, where militants retreated after U.S. airstrikes, the Kurdish news agency Rudaw said, citing officials.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential arrangements, said the U.S., Turkey, Jordan, France, Britain and Gulf states have been discussing how to arm the Kurds and that some weapons already have been delivered.
French Foreign Laurent Fabius today urged his European counterparts to send arms to the Kurdish forces. European ambassadors to the European Union will meet today to discuss the crisis in Iraq.
Kurdish Arms
Kurdish military forces, known as peshmerga, have begun receiving small-arms ammunition directly from the U.S., instead of going through the central government in Baghdad, because their needs have become “pretty substantial,” Mayville said.The Kurds have been outgunned in the fight because the Sunni insurgents have built up their forces with captured armored vehicles and heavy weapons that the U.S. had provided to the Iraqi Army.
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