Since the resignation of PM Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq has been struggling with trying to come up with a replacement. This is particularly difficult both because new elections loom, demanded by protesters, and because there is no consensus alternative for a premier that is acceptable to both the protest movement and the international powers that traditionally dictate the leadership.
The Iran backed Binaa bloc in parliament is pushing Governor Assad al-Eidani as their candidate of choice, and sent his nomination to President Barham Salih. The protesters were already loudly rejecting Eidani at this point, considering anyone acceptable to Iran as necessarily too close to Iran to have the post. Salih responded by refusing to accept the nomination.
The problem is Iraq’s constitution doesn’t allow the president to reject the largest parliament bloc’s candidate. Salih acknowledged that, but said he’d rather resign than nominate Eidani, meaning if they push the matter, they risk ending up with an interim PM the protesters hate, and losing the president in the process.
The US is also said to oppose Eidani, and is pushing Salih to reject the proposal. Generally the US would have a preferred candidate as well, though from the protesters’ perspective it’s the same problem, a PM who is dominated by foreign interests.
With hope of major electoral reform before the next vote, many simply don’t want the job at all, since it’s going to be a very temporary, thankless job, and anyone enough of an outsider for the protesters would be unacceptable to the MPs.
So we’ll have both Syria and Iraq ruled by a man named Assad? I’m guessing that’s the only reason Iran are proposing him – a giant middle finger to the US who’ve spent the last decade chanting ‘Assad must go’
You can’t help but think that Iraq and Syria were intentionally destroyed as nations to make way for a “greater” Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates. That’s why neocons and neoliberals in the USA are all for the 9/11 wars that have decimated much of the Middle East. That’s why the new $738 billion “defense” budget sailed through Congress with nary a word from the MSM.
Whether greater or not — it is all about Israel. One can hear it loud and clear in media’s coverage of protests. Sure, protests are the tools nowadays to decide who PM is, or whether to have a government or not. Can we dissect the protestors groups, and find out exactly who is funding them — and then accept that vast majority of people on the streets just want US out. That is conveniently air brushed. Instead the picture is created of some anti-Iranian protest. The largest block of elected in Parliament is pro-Iranian.
This is to keep the chaos going. So even if Syria settles down — Iraq will not. There are always methods. And we pay for it all.
Muqtada?