Abadi is close to making a historic decision
Iraqi sources said Saturday that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced his break-up with the Islamic Dawa Party because of disagreements with leaders and a second alliance with the Al-Nasr bloc and others led by Moqtada al-Sadr and other political forces.
The sources told «life», that «the religious authority in Najaf and the leader of the Sadrist movement, Moqtada al-Sadr has the same view on the candidate to the prime minister, and if the Dawa Party must be independent and outside the custody of his party».
She pointed out that «the match between the reference and the chest does not mean they agreed on this in practice, but a common orientation», stressing that «Abbadi is aware of this trend has not yet made his decision, but close to that waiting to deal with the implications of that with his party».
And revealed «differences on the position of the party from the alliance with others, led by Sadr, who ranked first in the parliamentary elections».
The sources said that «the axis of Vice President Nuri al-Maliki within the Dawa Party completely refuses to enter the list of victory in an alliance with others, because of Sadr’s position of the leader of the rule of law and the Secretary General of the party (ie al-Maliki).
According to leaks learned by «life», «a breakfast Ramadan included the last leaders of the invitation saw verbal arguments regarding the rejection of the requirement to remove the prime minister candidate from his party».
But the leader of the party Saad Almtalibi admitted in a press statement, that «the alliance of Sawson was the establishment of impossible conditions for dialogue with us, such as Maliki’s apology from the people of Mosul, because of the occupation of the organization of the terrorist calls their city. Therefore, there are no dialogues with others and this is their choice, they wanted to get away from us, and we are not who moved away ».
On the other hand, al-Maliki’s office denied in a statement in response to journalists’ questions addressed to him, regarding the information about his position on the appointment of the next prime minister, that «does not nominate anyone and does not object to the nomination of anyone to the position bar to come within the legal context».
At the same time, he objected to any candidate who would circumvent the election results and the legal context.
Article Credit: Shafaaq.com (Special Thanks to Charles Bright)
BGG ~ If this is public – Abadi is close to making his deal… if this is the alliance, IMHO – you can stick a FORK in Maliki. He’s done. However, there are lots of discussions going on and plenty of leveraging. Stay tuned.
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After the surprise of Sadr (winning)… Iraqi Prime Minister receives a surprise candidate from the Allawi family
A few weeks after the announcement of the final results by the Electoral Commission in Iraq, and although the talks have not yet led to the formation of major blocs to resolve the name of the next prime minister, but the names of several candidates for candidates at the head of the government is expected to Iraqis.
In this context, sources close to the coalition of the conquest and the rule of law, the lack of veto by the reference Najaf to nominate Ali Allawi for the post of prime minister of the next government, as acceptable by the United States and Iran, which have an impact on the political decisions of most blocks.
Allawi, who is not a member of any party, was born in Baghdad in 1947. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and an investment expert at the World Bank and has contributed to the creation of a number of investment banking companies.
Allawi served as the finance minister of the Iraqi Governing Council in 2004. He was the last alternate member of the Iraqi Governing Council. He was also the first acting civilian defense minister in addition to his duties as minister of trade in the interim government of Iraq in 2005 and was elected as a member of the National Assembly.
Informed sources revealed yesterday that the leader of the Sadrist movement Moqtada al-Sadr may put his cousin Jaafar al-Sadr as a candidate for prime minister.
Abadi and the second state for its part, said Al-Arabiya in a report that former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had welcomed the merger of the coalition victory and law, but without preconditions. The source added that Maliki informed Abadi the possibility of putting his name among several candidates for prime minister, and that his nomination as a candidate or one is unacceptable.
The source also confirmed that al-Abbadi’s visit to al-Maliki took place before he went to meet with Moqtada al-Sadr last week, pointing out that Abadi did not find strong support from al-Maliki and Sadr, as Sadr set conditions for his support for his second term, Abadi may not be able to implement.
It is noteworthy that the close results of the legislative elections held on 12 May, had the strongest impact in the meeting of political opponents, as the inability of any bloc to form the largest bloc alone or even in alliance with another put everyone before the option of forgetting the former hostility, convergence Even between opposites and adversaries in order to form a government.
A meeting between Khamis al-Khangar, the leader of the Iraqi Alliance, who was accused of supporting terrorism and undermining state security in Maliki’s government, was reported. Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the al-Fath Alliance of the Popular Rally, said Saturday morning.
While the meeting was denied at the outset by some leaders of the crowd, but the Badr Organization did not deny that, considering that there are no red lines or legal impediments to those accepted in the national framework.
Article Credit: Shafaaq.com
BGG ~ Important to note, while interesting – this article is slightly older than the first one. Like I said – lots of “leveraging” going on…
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Kaperoni (Dinar Guru) – Though the spread is consistant and we are getting close to the 3 month compliance, I do think the IMF needs to have it’s Article IV Consulation with Iraq and the formation of a new government before we will see change. The Article IV is a good time for the IMF to review the CBI and go over monetary policy, etc. before the CBI writes the letter accepting Article VIII. The new government needs to be in place to encourage investment. We are getting closer for sure.
Read more: http://www.dinarupdates.com/observer/
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Iraq issues arrest warrant for Kurdish referendum leader
KIRKUK, Iraq – Iraqi judicial authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Kurdish politician at the centre of last year’s failed independence bid, a source from within the provincial administration said Sunday.
Rebwar Talabani, head of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, was one of the architects of the September referendum in which an overwhelming majority backed independence for Iraqi Kurdistan.
The plebiscite was branded illegal by Baghdad, which in the wake of the vote sent troops into the disputed city of Kirkuk and retook territory in the oil-rich region.
A source from within the provincial administration, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the arrest warrant was issued for Talabani “hoisting the Kurdish flag on official buildings of Kirkuk and organizing the referendum” in the disputed city.
Talabani is currently in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where he fled to last October as Iraqi troops arrived in Kirkuk.
There continue to be tensions between the majority Kurdish population, Arabs and Turkmens in Kirkuk province, north of Baghdad.
Authorities imposed a curfew last month after skirmishes broke out following the results of the May 12 national elections being announced.
Article Credit: Rudaw.net Carol Williamson
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The Iraqi street is waiting for a prominent and important event
Baghdad News – The Iraqi street is expected in the next 48 hours, the Federal Court’s response on the fairness of the elections, in the atmosphere of escalation by the parliament, which recently threatened to sack all members of the Commission, according to article twenty of the Iraqi constitution in force in the ,country according to officials and politicians of different blocs , The decision of the Federal Court is expected to be issued during the next two days, and carries the formula of constitutional interpretation and not the wording of a decision, in view of the absence of a judicial complaint against the Presidency of ,Parliament or the Electoral Commission
Article Credit: Baghdadnews.info (Special Thanks to Tim Tarkington)
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ChrisC (Dinar Guru) – Everybody should remember this…1) Iraq is the geographic center of the ME, they are the richest in assets in the ME and they are constantly saying they are going to be the tiger of the ME.Another thing I always thought was telling is our largest embassy in the world is in Iraq. A country like this is not going to use somebody else’s currency five minutes longer than they have to. 2) No more ISIS 3) corruption is on the way out. That really is one of the main reasons IMO that they have kept using the dollar and now they are going to start stringing them up if they stay in Iraq. In the final analysis the evidence, not my opinion, shows that this should be much sooner than later.
Read more: http://www.dinarupdates.com/observer/
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EMERGING FROM THE CHAOS OF ISIS, BAGHDAD’S BAD BOY TRIUMPHS
In November 2015 I drove into the low hills that separate the city of Kirkuk from Hawija in northern Iraq. We stopped at a village inhabited by a small religious minority called Kakei. A man in olive-drab camouflage and a massive mustache had pulled over our SUV.
The driver, a Kurdish Peshmerga or soldier, said we were on the way to the local general’s headquarters. The checkpoint guard waved us on, and the SUV bobbed along the badly paved road.
The battle against ISIS that November had gone on for more than a year in Iraq and showed no signs of ending. Around eight million people were living under ISIS control in 2015, according to UN estimates, and more than 20,000 foreign fighters from 80 countries were manning its front lines, which stretched for thousands of miles across Iraq and Syria. In April 2015 the Iraqi Army and Shi’ite militias had liberated Tikrit from the extremists. The Iraqi security forces were also battling to retake Ramadi, next to Baghdad.
“There is no Iraq, it’s finished,” was the refrain in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq that year.
Driving up to the front line, passing the ruined villages from the fighting, the parched canals that once flooded the plains around Kirkuk, the oil fires in the distance, it was hard to imagine how Iraq’s central government would return to control these areas.
John Bolton, who is now the US national security adviser, wrote in November 2015 in The New York Times that “Iraq and Syria as we have known them are gone.” He argued that “the best alternative to the Islamic State in northeastern Syria and western Iraq is a new, independent Sunni state.”
Two and a half years after Bolton presented his “Sunnistan” to readers, and after I huddled in trenches near Hawija, Iraq has returned. There is no “Sunnistan,” and ISIS is defeated.
According to the US-led coalition, ISIS has lost 98% of its territory. In Iraq that means it has been driven from the cities and back into the rural caves and farms it came from. Every week brings new clashes with the remnants of ISIS. But concerns that it was bubbling up a new insurgency have not been borne out.
Emblematic of the failure of ISIS to reemerge after being driven from Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul in June 2017 is the fact that it was not able to intimidate voters during Iraq’s May 12 elections.
THE IRAQI – elections this year were a sign of hope in a country that has not really known peace for the last four decades. It is often forgotten that Iraqis have been at war since the 1980s.
The war that began in September 1980 between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Islamic revolutionary Iran still underpins Iraq’s politics today. Before launching his assault on Iran, Saddam ordered the execution of the Shi’ite Islamic Dawa Party leader Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr. He was the father-in-law of Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party came in first in the elections this year.
The war years of the 1980s were formative for other reasons. Young Iraqi officers who fought in them or grew up during them remember the years of Iraqi military power and scientific progress. Some of them also engaged in massive human rights abuses, such as the genocide against Kurds in the Anfal campaign of the 1980s. It was this genocide that made many Kurds feel they could not be part of Iraq.
For Shi’ites in Iraq, the war years were traumatizing, yet some of the current Shi’ite leaders of Iraq today fought alongside the Iranians in the war. Hadi al-Amiri, whose “Fateh” coalition came in second in the May elections, had lived in Iran for two decades, where his Badr Brigade had helped Iran against Saddam.
When US forces arrived in Baghdad in 2003, they pulled down the Saddam statue and waited to see what would arise in its place. Over subsequent elections in 2005, 2010, 2014 and 2018, Iraqi politics has become increasingly sectarian, divided along religious and ethnic lines.
The top six vote-getters this year were Sadr’s Sairoon, Amiri’s Fateh, Haider al-Abadi’s Victory Alliance, Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition, Nechirvan Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party and Ayad Allawi’s Wataniya list. Except for Allawi, who espouses a kind of secular politics, all the other parties are basically sectarian.
Maliki and Abadi are both members of the Shi’ite Dawa Party and both lived in exile until 2003. Sadr is a religious Shi’ite cleric. Amiri, as discussed above, earned his spurs in Iran, opposing Saddam. So one could conclude that the top-four winners of the Iraqi election this year all share a similar background, even if their current positions are more complex. The last person on the list in the top parties in Iraq is the Kurdish party of Barzani. Like the Shi’ites, it also earned its reputation opposing Saddam.
Although Iraqi democracy is divided so deeply along sectarian lines, it is a very vibrant democracy. In Mosul, scene of some of the most brutal fighting against ISIS, where much of the western part of the city lies in ruins, election flags festooned highways, cafés, the university and the shells of houses in the city.
Six thousand seven hundred candidates ran for 329 seats from 87 parties. A quarter of the seats were reserved for women, so even Shi’ite religious parties had to field numerous women candidates, and it was not unusual in Iraq to see women’s faces on election posters. One woman even had two posters printed up, one in a hijab, one with her hair flowing, for different voting sectors. Nine seats in parliament were reserved for minorities, including Christians and Yazidis, both of whose groups had been targeted for genocide and ethnic cleansing by ISIS.
On election day, around 44% of the 18 million eligible voters came to the polls. This low turnout showed that even though it was a vibrant election, many didn’t see much to vote for.
Oddly, considering that the war on ISIS was led by a Shi’ite prime minister and Baghdad had been saved by the calling up of 100,000 Shi’ite militias in 2014, Shi’ite areas suffered the largest percentage drops in turnout in 2018 compared to 2014. In Najaf and Karbala, the Shi’ite holy heartland, 30% fewer turned out.
In Baghdad almost a million fewer voters went to the polls. In Sunni areas, devastated by four years of occupation and war with ISIS, the turnout was similar to 2014. In Anbar province 30,000 more people went to the polls, and in Nineveh, where Mosul is located, the decline was only 4%.
Some of the figures seem almost impossible to understand, considering that large parts of Nineveh were devastated by war. For instance, in the Sinjar region, more than 300,000 Yazidis who once lived there are now in IDP camps in Dohuk, and many of them were unable to vote. In West Mosul, where bodies are still being pulled from the rubble – 2,838 since Mosul was retaken – the voters waltzed to the polls seemingly without problems.
Iraq also experimented with new voter machines in its recent elections. This led to accusations of fraud, especially in the Kurdish region.
In Sulaymaniyah, the Kurdish region’s second largest city, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is the political party that has run the city for decades. The Talabani family, which plays a leading role in the PUK, are the main players in elections. In the 1990s the Kurdish region was so divided that the PUK and KDP fought a brief civil war. The Barzani and Talabani families patched things up and ran on a joint list in the 2005 elections. But they drifted apart afterward.
The war on ISIS united the Kurds against a common enemy, but 2017 brought more controversy, as the KDP encouraged the region to hold an independence referendum. The PUK and most other smaller Kurdish parties signed on for the referendum, and 2.8 million voted for independence in September 2017.
But the referendum brought instability. The Americans and the other Western powers opposed the Kurds breaking off from Iraq. Instead, the Kurds were expected to toe the line and be part of unified Iraq. Western policy-makers saw the Kurds as a pro-Western element in Iraq as a counterbalance to the increasing Iranification of political parties in Baghdad. If the Kurds were to leave Iraq, it would truly become Sunnistan and Shiastan, breaking apart as Bolton once thought it would.
So, in order for Iraq to be strong, the Kurds have to be a bit weaker, and their autonomous government should not rock the boat. At least that’s what the old policy elites in Washington thought.
For average Kurds the problems were not just about independence and Baghdad’s issues, but about receiving salaries. During the war on ISIS the Kurdistan Regional Government paid salaries late to the hundreds of thousands of state employees because it claimed the war was stretching the budget. With the war over, the civil servants wanted to get back to a normal life. There was also anger at other issues, such as corruption and nepotism. Strikes and protests rocked the Kurdish region in December and into January.
But by the time elections came around in May, things seemed to have returned to normal. Baghdad, which had attempted to punish the KRG by closing its international airports, walked back its sanctions. In the end, around 2.2 million Kurds voted in Iraq’s elections, fewer than had voted for independence. The lower turnout illustrated that they, too, were disillusioned. But they chose traditional parties, the KDP and PUK. This led the smaller Kurdish parties to scream “fraud” and even seek a meeting with the US anti- ISIS envoy, Brett McGurk, after the elections.
In Kirkuk, too, there were allegations of fraud by the Arab and Turkmans in the city. Kirkuk saw a 15% decline in turnout, but its Turkman vote was similar to 2014. The main Kurdish party in Kirkuk lost almost 30,000 votes, while the Arab party gained votes.
In the end the Iraqi government didn’t seem interested in recounts in Sulaymaniyah or Kirkuk. Once you start doing recounts, it never ends, as the US found out during the George W. Bush election.
And Iraq didn’t want controversies or fighting in the streets over voting machines. If just one station was found to have a discrepancy between what the hi-tech machines said the vote was, versus who voted for what, it might call into question the vote throughout the country.
THE PROBLEM… Iraq faced after the elections was that the man who was supposed to win did not win. That is probably the greatest evidence that there could not be fraud in the elections, because when there is fraud the people who are supposed to win, win. The man who was supposed to win was Abadi, the great hope of Iraq, the defeater of ISIS, slayer of dragons.
Abadi was plucked from relative obscurity to lead Iraq in the dark days of August 2014, when ISIS was at the gates of Baghdad. Short, stocky, his feet seem to barely reach the floor in meetings, and the large chairs that Iraqi politicians like to sit in seem about to swallow his small stature. He became the West’s favorite Iraqi leader.
Abadi reached out to the Saudis at the behest of the Americans, and when his army had defeated ISIS, he did a victory lap of neighboring countries. He also engineered a tacit alliance with both Turkey and Iran to oppose Kurdish independence moves. Having stymied the Kurdish ambitions, he also attracted billions in investment from the international community to rebuild Iraq. He posed with members of his numerous army units, the Federal Police, the elite Counter Terrorism Service, and others. He worked closely with the US-led coalition and inaugurated a new training program for air-force cadets in Iraq in 2018.
On the eve of the elections Abadi went up to Mosul Dam, which ISIS once held, and he traveled around Iraq, meeting local Sunni sheikhs and posing with masses of barrel-chested advisers, as though he were destined for greatness.
But on election night Abadi must have had a moment like Carlos Salinas, Mexico’s former president, had in 1988. In that year a computer system tabulating votes mysteriously crashed when it showed the opposition might win. The ballots were bundled up, hidden away, and burned several years later. On election night, Abadi must have been apoplectic, seeing his rival Sadr riding to victory.
Abadi had named his own list in the elections “Victory,” and he had left behind Maliki, whose party he had once been a member of, to run on his own. But the night brought failure. His “Victory” list came in third. The Shi’ite militia list led by Amiri came in second. And Sadr, the bad boy of Iraq’s politics for the last 15 years, came in first.
Sadr, whose father and relatives were murdered by Saddam, had bedeviled Iraq since the Americans arrived in 2003. A leader of the Shi’ite poor, he became a militia leader and sent his acolytes to fight the Americans in 2004. Over the years he grew apart from his initial Iranian backers and became a fierce nationalist. In April 2016 he sent his followers to take over the Green Zone in Baghdad in massive protests.
He’s never been keen on major foreign policy decisions. He doesn’t think the Americans should be in Iraq, and wants Iran’s tentacles pulled off Baghdad. US diplomats once called his voters a “rabble” and his followers “gangs.” But the gangs and the rabble came out to vote on May 12, perhaps sensing that Sadr’s time had come, after Iraq had tried so many other things.
Abadi lost in May perhaps because he wasn’t much of a leader, or because countries that have fought wars for years sometimes ditch the captain. Winston Churchill was thrown out by voters in 1945. Abadi is no Churchill, so it’s understandable.
However, Abadi may remain in power in Iraq as part of a coalition agreement, with some combination of Sadr, Amiri and the Kurds. He will be weakened. The Kurds will not be greatly strengthened by the chaotic election. The Sunni Arabs, who Bolton once thought would form their own state, have very few seats in the parliament.
So the future of Iraq after the elections will be mundane, as the country plods along and tries to craft itself in a post-ISIS era. For foreign diplomats the results of the elections were unexpected. But for Iraq they are a sign that democracy can work, despite wars and extremism, Iranian influence, sectarian divides and everything else.
George W. Bush, who ordered the Iraq invasion, was widely condemned for it years later, with some arguing he brought disaster not only on Iraq but instability to the whole of the Middle East.
Perhaps, though, Iraq’s democracy is a good sign after ISIS. Whatever the country’s myriad problems, it held a successful vote without civil strife and has a chance to keep building its institutions. The question is if that will come under the prying eyes of Sadr, and whether he will take on a patrician-like role or return to his old ways.
What do Iraq’s elections mean for Israel?
Iraq’s May 2018 elections shocked some by bringing to the fore Muqtada al-Sadr, the passionate cleric who once fought the US in 2004. Sadr has been a critic of Israel, but he has been no more critical than other members of Iraq’s leading Shi’ite parties. Sadr is not as close to Iran as Hadi al-Amiri’s Fateh list or Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition.
It was clear to Jerusalem that no matter who would win in the Iraqi elections, the country would be run by some Shi’ite party, and Iran would have its influence. The Hashd al-Shaabi coalition of Shi’ite militias that helped defeat ISIS is not a permanent part of the Iraqi Security Forces. For Israel, the concern is much larger than the elections; it is the degree to which official parts of the Iraqi government work directly with Tehran and help Iran form a land corridor via Iraq to Syria and Lebanon. That corridor passes next to the Golan and threatens Israel.
The problem for Israel is that whoever wins in Baghdad will end up working with the US, which has sunk billions into Iraq, and whose coalition is training the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Air Force. The US doesn’t want to leave Iraq again, as it did in 2011, and it wants to use Iraq to continue to supply its forces in Syria.
For Israel, the ideal would be to see the US working more closely with the Kurdish region in Iraq and see Kurds playing more of a role in Baghdad.
There is another added twist that shows Sadr might provide stability in the region and aid the anti-Iran camp. Evidence for this comes from Sadr’s trip to Saudi Arabia last year. If Sadr and the Saudis and Kurds confront Iran’s influence in Iraq, that would be welcomed by Jerusalem, because it views Iran as the major threat to the region.
Iraq’s politics is never a simple story. There may be anti-Iran elements, but they work closely with elements that are close to Iran. Iran doesn’t “control” Iraq, it uses its influence quietly and wisely. So any notion that the elections represent some game changer is mistaken. The elections basically are another seal of approval for widespread Shi’ite power in Iraq.
A stable post-election Iraq would be welcomed by Israel, as long as Iran does not gain in influence. Until the final coalition is known, it will not be clear whether Iran’s allies have pulled something off, or Sadr has.
Article Credit: Jpost.com (Special Thanks to Vernell Washington)
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Mnt Goat (Dinar Guru) – So why did the CBI decide to hold it up the project to delete the zeros until after the elections, even though they told us it was all ready and prepared? The CBI along with the IMF wanted to first play out the polical process of the elections and to make sure that these corrupt officials are eliminated from office and the amendments to the election law are passed in Parliament once and for all.Iraq needs these laws to keep these crooks out of politics… They needed to close down these FAKE BANKS throughout Iraq and prosecute the guilty. Just too much currency MANIPULATION and FRAUD.
Read more: http://www.dinarupdates.com/observer/
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Chattels (Dinar Guru) –The only change or import of the articles being posted about the value of the dinar in the market are whether the difference between the official rate and the market rate is within 2%….There is about ten days left on the countdown to a ninety day period of compliance.
Read more: http://www.dinarupdates.com/observer/
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Sadr urges Iran to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs
The chief of the Sadrist Movement, Moqtada al-Sadr, called on Iran to stop interfering in Iraqi internal affairs.
Commenting on Iranian role in forming the next government, Sadr said that Iran is a neighbor country and it must stop meddling in Iraq affairs.
This comes amid extensive efforts exerted by political blocs to form the new Iraqi government.
Sadr’s Sairoon bloc won 54 seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections, held on May 12.
The parliamentary elections’ results do not allow Sadr to unilaterally form a government but do give him the best possibility to play a key role in naming the next prime minister.
Article Credit: Thebaghdadpost.com
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Some interesting headlines…
Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s bloc wins Iraq election
Why Iraq’s election is a remarkable victory for democracy
Leaders of the Dawa Party are seeking to revive a previous agreement between Abadi and Maliki
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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi enjoys clear US support in forming the next government. (AFP)
Iraq close to securing coalition to limit Iranian influence
• The talks are being led and sponsored by the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, who emerged as the biggest winner in the May 12 elections
• Abadi, whose alliance came third in the parliamentary elections with 44 seats, enjoys clear US support
BAGHDAD: Iraqi political forces are close to agreeing on a parliamentary coalition of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties that will curb Iranian influence in the next government.
Details of negotiations that could reshape the country’s political landscape were revealed exclusively to Arab News by sources involved in the talks.
The talks are being led and sponsored by the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, who emerged as the biggest winner in the May 12 elections.
His Sairoon alliance won 54 seats, and he aims to form a coalition of 200 seats, 34 more than the required number to form a government.
By establishing such a big coalition in the 329-seat Parliament, Al-Sadr plans to block rivals from attempting to form their own coalition, the negotiators said.
According to the Iraqi constitution, securing the largest parliamentary coalition is the first step to forming a government.
Al-Sadr’s success in forming the biggest bloc limits the influence of pro-Iranian parties in the next government and boosts Haider Abadi’s chances of continuing into a second term as prime minister.
Abadi, whose alliance came third in the parliamentary elections with 44 seats, enjoys clear US support.
Al-Sadr and Abadi have proposed a “consultative council” comprising heads of the political entities that make up the coalition. The council will form the government and supervise its work.
“Formation of this (council) is the practical translation of the concept of patriarchal government adopted and announced by Sadr,” a negotiator from one of the Shiite parties told Arab News.
“Initially this council will not enjoy any official status but will organize the governmental and legislative work of the bloc.”
The negotiator said that along with Al-Sadr and Abadi, the council will include Ammar Al-Hakim, the prominent cleric and politician who heads Al-Hikma alliance, and “those who come with them to form a government.”
The council “is likely” to include Iyad Allawi, the Sunni-backed vice president and head of Wattiniya alliance; Masoud Barzani, the former president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party; and Ossama Al-Nujaifi, the Sunni vice president and head of Al-Qarar alliance.
“They have reached preliminary understandings on the key points,” the negotiator said.
The plans propose that the sharing of power between religions and ethnicity should be limited to the president, the prime minister and the speaker of the Parliament, while ministers are selected by the new coalition.
Previously all the ministries have been divided out among Iraq’s various sects.
“This will be a political majority government, but will include all the contents of Iraqis (Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds),” the negotiator said.
“Negotiations are going well and we expect to announce the formation of the largest bloc before Eid (middle of June) or maybe before that.”
Two other politicians familiar with the talks confirmed details of the plans to Arab News, and said Al-Sadr, Abadi and Al-Hakim generally agreed on most of the points.
Negotiations are continuing with Alawi, Barzani and Al-Nujaifi, a senior Shiite leader told Arab News.
“The project aims to build up a governmental bloc that includes all the parties, which will participate in the government and an opposition bloc that includes the rest. No party will be allowed to be in the government and in the opposition at the same time,” he said.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, Iraq has been a battleground for world powers in the region, especially Iran and the US. A stable government cannot be formed without agreement from the two nations.
Two sources familiar with the talks told Arab News that the US “fully supports” Abadi and Al-Sadr, and “there are no objections against Al-Sadr so far.”
But Iran is “still negotiating to ensure that one of its allies is in the new formation.”
The negotiator said Iran hopes to get the Badr Organization, one of the most prominent Iraqi armed factions, into the new coalition.
Badr is led by Hadi Al-Amiri and is part of Al-Fattah alliance, which is also headed by Al-Almiri and came second in the election with 47 seats. Al-Fattah included most of the pro-Iranian Shiite paramilitary groups.
Article Credit: Arabnews.com (Special Thanks to Charles Bright)
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Click this link to join the DU “private” FaceBook Group…
https://www.facebook.com/groups/571383766355188/
(go here and ask to join… then add some Dinar Friends!!)
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Post RV Checklist (it’s getting to be that time!! Listen up!!)
Dos and Don’ts of Windfall Wealth:
Treat it like a PowerBall win
– Tell no one, not even family. If you must talk, do so with one who is already in the know.
– Don’t run out & buy new “stuff”. People notice.
– Get an unpublished number and give it out very sparingly.
– Get a tax accountant you can trust to make sure the IRS is satisfied (Certified Opinion is something to look into) and pursue asset protection…
Read Complete List: http://www.dinarupdates.com/showthread.php?18519-The-Post-RV-Checklist-and-Flashback-documents&p=128477#post128477
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