Maliki digs in as U.S. pushes for new Iraqi government

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was battling to keep his job on Monday, deploying forces across Baghdad as erstwhile allies nominated a replacement and the United States warned him not to block popular demands for change.

With Takfiri rebels from the Islamic State making new gains over Kurdish forces north of the capital, the United States hopes a consensus government can stem bloodshed that prompted the first U.S. air strikes since troops pulled out in 2011.

Maliki went on television late on Sunday to denounce the ethnic Kurdish president for delaying the constitutional process of naming him prime minister following a parliamentary election in late April.

But fellow Shia’s nominated Haider al-Abadi, a long-time Maliki ally, in his place as the struggle for the premiership descended into judicial wrangling and a power play on the streets of the beleaguered capital, where militias and special forces seen as loyal to Maliki took up strategic positions.

After Washington endorsed the efforts of President Fouad Masoum to break three months of political deadlock, Secretary of State John Kerry called on Maliki not to resort to force or “stir the waters” when Iraqis were seeking a change of leader.

The president formally asked Abadi to form a government.

But Maliki, lifted from obscurity to take office during the U.S. occupation in 2006, has made clear he will not go quietly.

LEGAL WRANGLING

Complicating efforts to name a replacement from among fellow Shia’s, who appear to have support from the country’s leading cleric and from Iran, the highest court issued a written ruling to clarify rules on forming a government after an election. Its cautious wording was taken by many observers to favor Maliki’s case.

Without naming any political group, the judges said that, under the constitution, the biggest group in parliament should be given the first opportunity to nominate a prime minister.

A key point is whether Maliki’s State of Law is that biggest group or whether the designation belongs to a broader Shia coalition known as the National Alliance, of which State of Law is part. The court, by referring to the rights of the biggest group that took part in a first session of the new legislature on July 1, seemed to favor Maliki, since the National Alliance failed to register as a parliamentary unit on that occasion.

Nonetheless, a spokesman for the Alliance said it had nominated Abadi, a deputy speaker of parliament and ally of Maliki in his Dawah party, to replace him as premier.

Serving in a caretaker capacity since the inconclusive election on April 30, Maliki has defied calls by Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shia’s, regional power broker Iran and Iraq’s top Shia cleric to step aside for a less polarizing figure.

WOMEN HELD AS SLAVES

Consolidating a territorial grip that includes tracts of Syrian desert and stretches toward Baghdad, the Islamic State’s local and foreign fighters have swept into areas where non-Sunni groups live. While they persecute non-believers in their path, that does not seem to be the main motive for their latest push.

The group wants to establish religious rule in a caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq and has tapped into widespread anger among Iraq’s Sunnis at a democratic system dominated by the Shia Muslim majority following the U.S. invasion of 2003.

The militants are now just 30 minutes’ drive from Arbil. In their latest sweep through the north, the Sunni insurgents seized a fifth oil field, several more villages and the biggest dam in Iraq – which could let them flood cities or cut off water and power supplies – hoisting their black flags along the way.

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