Much to U.S. chagrin.
Related:
ISIS Insurgency All About Removing Maliki
The Middle East Mice That Roared
The loudest one:
"Nouri al-Maliki signals his intent to keep job; Prime minister of Iraq vows to crush militants" by Ryan Lucas | Associated Press July 05, 2014
BAGHDAD — Despite mounting pressure to step aside, Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki vowed Friday not to abandon his bid for another term as prime minister and pledged to stay on until the Sunni militants who have overrun much of the country are defeated.
The sharp words are certain to prolong the political impasse gripping Iraq, which is facing urgent demands for a new government that can hold the nation together in the face of an onslaught that threatens to cleave it in three along ethnic and sectarian lines.
The offensive by militants has been fueled in part by grievances among the country’s Sunni Muslim minority with Maliki and his Shi’ite-led government.
Maliki, a Shi’ite who has been prime minister since 2006, has been accused by former allies and others of monopolizing power and contributing to the crisis by failing to promote reconciliation with Sunnis.
The United States has urged the formation of a more inclusive government but has not explicitly called for Maliki to bow out.
In what has been seen as a rebuke of Maliki, Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has pressed lawmakers to quickly form a new government that can confront the militant threat and unite the country.
Lawmakers failed in their first session of Parliament on Tuesday to make any progress.
On Friday, Sistani lamented the inability of political leaders to agree on a new prime minister and urged them to redouble their efforts, a cleric who represents him told worshipers in a sermon in the holy city of Karbala.
Maliki’s State of Law bloc won the most Parliamentary seats in April elections, which would traditionally make him the leading candidate to head a new government. But Maliki failed to gain a majority in the Legislature, meaning he needs allies to form a government.
That has set the stage for intense wrangling over the makeup of a coalition — and, above all, who will be prime minister.
Maliki made it clear on Friday his determination to stay on for a third consecutive term — or at least until he has crushed the insurgency
‘‘I will never give up the nomination for the post of prime minister,’’ he said in a statement issued by his office.
He framed the debate over his future in democratic terms, reminding Iraqis that the voters handed his bloc the most seats in Parliament and declaring that he must ‘‘stand by them during this crisis that Iraq is passing through.’’
Maliki said that to pull out now ‘‘while facing terrorist organizations that are against Islam and humanity would show weakness instead of carrying out my legitimate, national, and moral responsibility.’’
‘‘I have vowed to God that I will continue to fight by the side of our armed forces and volunteers until we defeat the enemies of Iraq and its people,’’ he said.
Iraq’s military claimed progress in that fight Friday, saying troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships captured the village of Awja — the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein — south of Tikrit. The push through Awja is part of an offensive whose ultimate aim is to retake Tikrit.
Notice how the battle has now taken a back-seat to politics?
Military spokesman Lieutenant General Qassim al-Moussawi said 50 militants were killed in the fighting. The toll could not be independently verified.
North of Tikrit, government airstrikes hit around eight vehicles that were carrying militants trying to capture Iraq’s largest oil refinery, said Sabah al-Nuaman, the spokesman for Iraq’s counterterrorism services.
I was told the insurgents controlled it.
He reported that as many as 30 insurgents were killed.
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"As Iraq teeters, legislators squabble" by Ryan Lucas | Associated Press July 08, 2014
BAGHDAD — Members of Iraq’s Parliament were divided Monday over when to hold its next session, potentially delaying the formation of a new government for weeks despite the threat from extremists who have seized control of a large chunk of the country and declared the establishment of an Islamic state.
The acting speaker of Parliament initially announced that the body would not meet again until mid-August because there was no agreement among factions over the top leadership posts, particularly the prime minister, with incumbent Nouri al-Maliki facing a campaign to replace him.
But after an uproar over the long delay, speaker Mahdi al-Hafidh said Monday night there was a preliminary agreement among lawmakers to meet Sunday.
But even that appeared uncertain, since Hafidh added that an official announcement of the date would not come until Tuesday.
With politicians struggling to even agree on when to meet, it was hard to see how they could quickly forge a compromise on the much thornier issue of a new government.
This has been an engineered and manufactured crisis to get rid of Maliki.
The impasse, coupled with the military’s sluggish counteroffensive, underlined just how difficult a task Iraqis face as they try to keep their country from fracturing along sectarian and ethnic lines.
Some would like to break it up into three, yeah.
The military suffered a new setback in its battle with the extremist advance Monday when the top commander of the armed forces battling militants in the west was killed by a mortar strike.
The United States, which withdrew the last American troops from Iraq in 2011, and other world powers have pressed for the quick formation of a new government, as has Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, the revered Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
What more do you really need to know?
They are calling for an inclusive government that will draw support among Iraq’s Sunni minority away from the insurgency, led by a radical Al Qaeda breakaway group called the Islamic State.
On Monday, a mortar attack killed the commander of the Iraqi army’s sixth division, Major General Najim Abdullah Ali, while he was overseeing a raid on the Anbar village of Karma, army spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan Ibrahim said.
Maliki lamented Ali’s death, calling him a ‘‘holy warrior’’ who was ‘‘martyred in the battlefield as he was fighting the terrorists.’’
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into a checkpoint in the Shi’ite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, killing five police officers and three civilians, a police official said. He said 16 people were wounded.
In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States was disappointed that Iraq’s leaders haven’t moved more quickly to unify the country.
At least we are finally getting honest reports from the White House.
Earnest said difficult steps must be taken to solve the problem and ‘‘reaching those agreements and making those difficult decisions are necessary for Iraq to survive.’’
Lawmakers met last week for the new Parliament’s first session since April elections, but the meeting ended without agreeing on a new prime minister, president, and speaker of Parliament.
The legislature had been expected to meet again Tuesday, but that session was called off since no progress had been made over the past week untangling the political situation.
The main point of contention right now is the post of prime minister, which holds most of the power in Iraq.
Back where we started.
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Related:
Occupation Iraq: Kerry's Sunni Triangle
The Drone Wars: Iraq
Time to give it a god-damn rest.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Iraq’s Parliament reschedules session to deal with crisis" by Qassim Abdul-Zahra | Associated Press July 09, 2014
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Parliament on Tuesday officially rescheduled its next session for early next week after criticism over initial plans for a five-week break, amid pressure for political leaders to agree on a new government....
Pressure from whom?
Acting Parliament speaker Mahdi al-Hafidh warned in a statement that any delay in forming a new government ‘‘will jeopardize Iraq’s security and democracy and will increase the suffering of Iraqis.’’ He also called on all political rivals to ‘‘shoulder their responsibilities and set aside their differences to fight terrorism to put Iraq back on the path of democracy.’’
************
Lawmakers are under pressure to quickly form a new government that can unite the country and roll back the insurgents....
This agenda-pushing propaganda being served up as news every day has become rank-rot sickening.
Despite the decision to meet Sunday instead of next month, it still appears unlikely that political leaders will be able to bridge their differences in time to settle on names for the top leadership posts — particularly the prime minister, with incumbent Nouri al-Maliki resisting a campaign to replace him.
Maliki’s State of Law bloc won the largest share of seats in April’s election, securing 92 out of Parliament’s 328 seats. But he is far short of the majority needed to govern, which means he needs allies to cobble together a coalition government.
His opponents, and many former allies, want him removed, accusing him of monopolizing power during his eight years in office and contributing to the current crisis by failing to promote reconciliation with Sunnis. But he has vowed that he will not abandon his bid for a third straight term.
The militant offensive that has plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the last US troops left in 2011 is being spearheaded by the Islamic State extremist group, which has also seized control of a huge chunk of land in neighboring Syria and essentially erased the border between the two countries.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the Parliament’s move ‘‘a positive step forward.’’
‘‘We certainly welcome the announcement. But it won’t stop there. It will require prompt agreement on a new parliamentary speaker and, following that, candidates for president and prime minister in order to have a successful creation or formation of a government.’’
Now you know who is behind the current contrived crisis. The U.S. wanted Maliki out, they were bummed when the rigged elections couldn't do it, so they resorted to this. Gotta fracture that Shi'ite crescent that threatens Israel and their world domination project!
Iraq informed the United Nations that the Islamic State has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents.
OMG!!
First, the AS IF quality of this PILE OF AP BULL$HIT is BEYOND BELIEF!
After all these years I am STILL STUNNED that the propaganda pre$$ and ma$$ media are STILL TRYING TO SELL YOU the "Iraq had WMD" bit!!
This is SO DISRESPECTFULLY INSULTING I have to MOVE ON before I start letting the expletives fly.
What they are doing is TROTTING OUT an EXCUSE four a FORTHCOMING FALSE FLAG that will require a greater EUSraeli response!
Iraq’s UN Ambassador, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, said in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon circulated Tuesday that ‘‘terrorist’’ groups entered the Muthanna site June 11 and seized weapons and equipment from the force guarding the facility.
He singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex, which according to a 2004 UN report also contained the toxic agent sodium cyanide, which is a precursor for the chemical warfare agent tabun, and artillery shells contaminated with mustard gas.
Fuck you (yeah, I typed to; I'm not offensive; they are for pushing this load).
Also on Tuesday, an airstrike targeted the mayoral building in the militant-held town of Qaim on the Iraqi side of the frontier, killing two people and wounding three others, according to Karim al-Dulaimi, a doctor at the town hospital.
Yes, once again we see how the BATTLE has taken a BACK SEAT to the larger agenda, making one QUESTION whether there ever was an ISIS takeover at all!!
Of course, I KNOW my ma$$ media in the form of the Boston Globe would NEVER, EVER LIE TO ME!
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