With Iraqi President Jalal Talabani being treated in Germany after a stroke, Iraq is without a key mediator as a new political crisis brews between the secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and the Shiite prime minister.
Talabani’s stroke may in itself spark turmoil — his resignation or death could cause a protracted dispute over his successor.
The 79-year-old has sought to bring together feuding politicians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Arabs and Kurds, during political crises that have plagued Iraq in the past year.
After Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that 10 of Iraqi Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi’s guards were arrested the previous day for alleged terrorism offenses, Talabani’s mediation skills will be sorely missed.
Essawi, a Sunni member of Iraqiya, told a news conference a “militia force” raided the ministry and his home “in an illegal act, without a judicial order,” and called on Maliki to quit “because he did not behave like a man of state.”
He spoke to journalists alongside Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, fellow members of the main Sunni-backed parliamentary bloc.
Maliki expressed “astonishment” at “linking the issue of the detainees with political disputes” and “trying to pull the whole country toward sectarian strife.”
However, a later statement from his office said some security force members “did not act professionally” during arrests made on Thursday, in an apparent admission of misconduct.
Iraqiya and other members of Maliki’s unstable national unity government have accused him of concentrating power in his own hands and moving toward a dictatorship, leading to calls for him to be removed from office.
Maliki’s opponents ultimately lacked the parliamentary votes to remove him, but Essawi called on Thursday for no-confidence proceedings to be reopened.
The arrest of Essawi’s guards comes almost exactly one year after Sunni Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s guards were arrested and accused of terrorism.
Hashemi himself — like Essawi, an Iraqiya member — eventually took refuge in Turkey and has since been given multiple death sentences for charges including murder, as have some of his guards.
Talabani, a Kurd, was hospitalized on Monday after suffering a stroke, and was airlifted to Germany on Thursday for specialist treatment.
“While on paper [Talabani’s] role is somewhat limited, his influence and mediation skills have gone a long way in smoothing over the country’s troubled political scene,” AKE Group analyst John Drake said.
“Some may describe his position as ‘ceremonial,’ but he has made it a lot more active, simply though dialogue and discussion, which play a strong role in Iraqi politics,” he said.
Should Talabani require replacing, choosing a successor would probably be drawn out, contentious and messy.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was