Speaking on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama threw his support behind a possible successor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is not bowing out — and raising fears of a possible coup. In a sign of how little faith the White House has in Iraq’s leaders in Baghdad, the U.S. is bypassing them and sending weaponry directly to the Kurds.
Children from the minority Yazidi sect make their way toward the Syrian border on Monday.President Obama tried to push Iraq’s power-hungry prime minister off the stage Monday — unreservedly throwing his support to a possible successor.
But a defiant Nouri al-Maliki gave no sign he was about to yield to American pressure, and special forces loyal to him continued to fan out across Baghdad — raising fears of a possible coup even as the government fights Islamic extremists in the north and west of the country.
The tense power struggle ratcheted up as tens of thousands of Iraqis from the Yazidi religious sect straggled into Syria after bloodthirsty ISIS fighters chased them into a barren mountain range a week ago.
The refugees, who spent days stranded in the highlands under a relentless sun with little food or water, came with harrowing stories of being driven from their homes.
Obama turned the screws on al-Maliki after Iraqi President Fouad Massoum gave the green light to the man he favors to form a new government, Haider al-Abadi.
“Today, Iraq took a promising step forward,” Obama said in brief remarks from Martha’s Vineyard, where he is on a working vacation. “The United States stands ready to support a government that addresses the needs and grievances of all Iraqi people.”
Obama said Abadi, who like Maliki is a Shiite, could reach out to Iraq’s Sunni and Kurd minorities in a way Maliki has repeatedly failed to do.
“The only lasting solution is for Iraqis to come together and form an inclusive government,” Obama said.
In a speech broadcast Monday night, Maliki rejected the move to shove him out the door. He insisted Abadi’s nomination “runs against the constitutional procedures,” and he accused the U.S. of siding with political forces “who have violated the constitution.”
“We assure all the Iraqi people and the political groups that there is no importance or value to this nomination,” he added.
The prime minister lost U.S. backing after he refused to share power with minorities and installed his corrupt cronies in key posts.
Maliki also drew U.S. ire by doing little to stop the advance of ISIS, which is bent on carving out a caliphate in Iraq — and has staged mass murders of those it regards as infidels.
In his remarks, Obama reported U.S. air and drone strikes have stopped the murderous ISIS militants from capturing the key Kurdish city of Erbil.
But the President reiterated that “there is no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq.”