Reforms by current Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi have generated a power struggle in Baghdad, among the Shia power centers that include Islamic Dawa Party, Maliki and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
An Iraqi parliamentary panel called on 16AUG15 for former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and dozens of other top officials to stand trial over the fall of the northern city of Mosul to Islamic State last year.
Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri met with Maliki on 17AUG15 in Tehran, with both figures seizing on recent comments made by Raymond Odierno, outgoing U.S. Army chief of staff, which Iranian media characterized as “dividing up Iraq is the only solution to settle crisis in the country.”
Photos: Islamic Republic News Agency, Leader.ir and Mohammad Ali Marizad at Tasnim News Agency
2 comments:
Professor Juan Cole has an interesting post on the subject of the current Shia power struggle in Baghdad:
"The Long Knives Come out in Baghdad"
http://www.juancole.com/2015/08/long-knives-come-baghdad.html
The main points in Prof. Cole’s article referred above:
Maliki was holding a lot of power and obstructing Prime Minister Abadi’s reforms. He called the most recent reforms that deprived him of vice presidency and his continued lever of power “unconstitutional.”
On the parliamentary commission investigating the fall of Mosul, with Maliki among other former officials referred to court: Maliki had kept the minister of defense portfolio for himself (for the two years prior to the fall of Mosul). There should be some accountability for those who lost much of Iraq to Daesh.
The down side of going after former officials, like Maliki, is that they have supporters, and there is a danger of the central government falling into faction-fighting.
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