Maliki Archives

Iraq’s Maliki blames Turkey for fall of Mosul

August 18, 2015 by administrator

Vice President Nouri al-Maliki,

Iraq’s former prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on Tuesday condemned as having “no value” a parliamentary panel’s findings on the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which called for him and other top officials to stand trial for negligence.

“What happened in Mosul was a conspiracy planned in Ankara, then the conspiracy moved to Arbil,” Maliki said in posts on Facebook, referring to the capitals of Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Iraqi PM Maliki accuses Kurds of ISIS ties

July 9, 2014 by administrator

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused Kurdistan of assisting ISIS fighters. The accusation could further fray cross-cultural ties in the multiethnic country.

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused Kurdistan of becoming a haven for fighters for the “Islamic State,” until recently known as ISIS, an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

During the fighting, Kurdistan’s Peshmerga militia (pictured) has taken control of several areas previously disputed with Iraq’s central government. The accusations come days after Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani asked the regional parliament to set a date for an independence referendum, which Maliki has called unconstitutional.

“We cannot stay silent as (Kurdish capital) Erbil is turning into a headquarters for operations pursued by the Islamic State, the outlawed Baath, al Qaeda and terrorists,” Maliki said Wednesday, vowing action, though he did not provide any evidence to support his allegations.

In power since 2006, Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, faces stiff opposition in his bid for a third term. His critics accuse him of monopolizing power and marginalizing Iraq‘s Sunni Muslim minority.

Whether Maliki will continue as prime minister has dominated talks on forming a new government that would represent Iraq’s major ethnic groups. Those talks have reached an impasse more than once.

Meanwhile, south of Baghdad on Wednesday, Iraqi police announced that they had found 53 dead bodies with their hands tied and shot in various places.

‘A moral duty’

The archbishops of Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk have said that Christians could completely abandon Iraq. War and sectarian conflict have shrunk the population to about 400,000 Christians from the 1.5 million there before the US-led invasion in 2003. Now even those who stayed through the worst of it have begun to leave for Turkey, Lebanon and Europe, the prelates said on a visit to Brussels Wednesday to seek EU help.

“Europeans have a moral duty vis-a-vis Iraq,” said the country’s most senior Christian leader, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, who flew into Brussels to meet with EU officials, including European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. At a news conference on Wednesday, Sako called himself “extremely anxious” about the fate of Christians fleeing areas held by ISIS fighters, though they “so far have not been targeted as a group.”

Kirkuk’s Chaldean Catholic archbishop, Youssif Mirkis, added that, even in the safer Kurdish zone, he has seen members of the community leave at a rate of several hundred a day: “Our presence was a symbol of peace, but there’s so much panic and few Christians see their future in Iraq,” he said.

mkg/hc (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)

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Iraq: Maliki emerges atop Iraq poll in bid to remain PM

May 19, 2014 by administrator

BAGHDAD – Agence France-Presse

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki won the most seats in Iraq’s elections but fell short of a majority May 19, leaving him in the driver’s seat to retain his post despite vocal opposition.

The results from the election commission showed Maliki’s State of Law alliance garnered 92 out of 328 parliamentary seats, with the incumbent himself winning more than 721,000 personal votes.

Both were by far the highest such figures from the April 30 election. But he still fell short of a majority, meaning he will have to win the support of rivals from across the communal spectrum, some of whom have sharply criticised Maliki and refused to countenance his bid for a third term in office.

State of Law won 30 seats in Baghdad alone, and came first in 10 provinces overall, all of them in the bloc’s traditional heartland in the Shiite-majority south of the country.

Maliki’s main rivals all finished with between 19 and 29 seats overall, according to an AFP tally of election commission results.

Iraq’s political parties have for weeks been meeting and manoeuvring as they seek to build post-election alliances, but the formation of a new government is still expected to take several months.

As in previous elections, the main blocs are expected to agree on an encompassing package that ensures the prime minister, president and parliament speaker are all selected together.

Under a de facto agreement established in recent years, Iraq’s prime minister is a Shiite Arab, the president is a Kurd and the speaker of parliament is a Sunni Arab.

Strong opposition from Sunnis, Kurds

Maliki’s critics accuse him of consolidating power, particularly within the security forces, and blame him for a year-long deterioration in security, rampant corruption and what they say is an insufficient improvement in basic services. The election and its aftermath came amid a surge in violence that has killed more than 3,500 people this year, fuelling fears that Iraq could be slipping back into the all-out conflict that cost tens of thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007.

In particular, the 63-year-old faces strong and vocal opposition in the Sunni-dominated west and the Kurdish north, with rivals there insisting they will not agree to a third term.

Maliki blames external factors such as the war in neighbouring Syria for the surge in unrest, and says his so-called partners in government snipe at him in public and block his legislative efforts in parliament.

The run-up to the election, Iraq’s first since U.S. troops withdrew at the end of 2011, was plagued by attacks on candidates and campaign rallies, and allegations of malpractice that contributed to lower turnout in areas populated by disgruntled minority Sunnis.

But the election has nevertheless been hailed largely as a success by the international community, with the United States and United Nations praising voters for standing up to militancy.

May/19/2014