BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s fate seems increasingly uncertain with political leaders meeting in recent days behind closed doors and discussing his future, according to a Shia lawmaker.
Shia politicians familiar with the secretive efforts to remove Al Maliki said two names mentioned as possible replacements are former vice president Adel Abdul Mahdi, a French-educated economist who is also a Shia; and Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia who served as Iraq’s first prime minister after Saddam’s ouster.
Al Mahdi belongs to a moderate Shia party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which has close links with Iran.
Also lobbying for the job is Ahmad Chalabi, a Shia lawmaker who recently joined the Supreme Council and was once a favourite of Washington to lead Iraq a decade ago. Another Shia from the Supreme Council trying to land the job is Bayan Jabr, a former finance and interior minister under Al Maliki’, according to the politicians, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
An Iraqi Shia lawmaker, Hakim Al Zamili, said he was aware of a meeting in recent days between Iraqi political leaders and US officials over the issue of Al Maliki’s future. He said he did not know who attended the meeting.
Al Zamili belongs to a political bloc loyal to anti-US cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, who has publicly demanded that Al Maliki, in office since 2006, be replaced.
Mohammed Al Khaldi, a top aide to outgoing Sunni speaker of parliament, Osama Al Nujaifi, said: “We have asked the Americans, Britain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran to work toward denying Al Maliki a new term. The Shia bloc must find a replacement for him.”
Besides the Sunnis, many of Al Maliki’s former Kurdish and Shia allies have been clamouring to deny the prime minister a third term in office, charging that he has excluded them from a narrow decision-making circle of close confidants.
“We wanted him to go but after what happened last week we want it even more,” said Mahmoud Othman, a veteran Kurdish politician.
Al Maliki said this week that the newly elected parliament will meet within days to elect a new president who will in turn ask the leader of the chamber’s largest bloc to form a new government. His State of the Law bloc won 92 of the chamber’s 328 seats in the April 30 election. He needs a majority of at least 165 lawmakers.
AP
