ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been forced to step down by the country’s newly-elected president, a move welcomed by the country’s Kurds and internationally.
President Fouad Massoum, a Kurd himself, took the decision after weeks of political bickering in Baghdad as Maliki insisted on hanging on for a third term despite massive opposition by the Kurds, a Sunni rebellion against his Shiite-led government and large parts of the country lost to jihadi insurgents.
Massoum asked Haider al-Abadi, another member of the Maliki’s State of Law coalition, to form a new government, four months after Iraq’s parliamentary polls.
The president’s move received solid support from the Kurds and internationally.
“Maliki is not a statesman,” said Kawa Muhammad, an MP of the Change Movement (Gorran) in the Iraqi parliament. “He is not a mature or progressive man and he only works by reaction.”
Maliki refused to accept the president’s decision, calling it a “violation of the constitution” and vowed to keep his post.
“Maliki’s speech was the same as those dictators who cling on to power,” said Muhammad.
The United States, United Nations and most Iraqi leaders -- including from his own Dawa Party – welcomed the move.
The Kurds, who have long accused Maliki of violating the constitution and leading the country into the current turmoil, were particularly supportive of the presidential decision.
“Maliki pursued wrong policies in governance and with the Shiites themselves that is why he wasn’t given a third chance at premiership by local or international leaders,” explained Muhammad.
Maliki, prime minister for the past eight years, has vowed to fight for his post, and its believed to have mobilized security and armed forces loyal to him.
Renas Jano, an MP from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Baghdad said that Maliki should not turn his party’s internal disputes into a national crisis.
“If Maliki brings his party disputes onto a national stage then he will be betraying all political parties, including his own friends,” said Jano, who believes that the Dawa Party could have averted this dilemma by working on an alternative candidate “when it was clear that Maliki wasn’t going to be prime minister for a third term.”
This KDP MP added that unless Erbil and Baghdad reach new written agreements, the Kurds will have the same disputes with the federal government that they had during Maliki’s tenure.
Jano said that removing Maliki is a message to future Iraqi leaders that “The Kurds have the power to evaluate and decide on any prime minister or any post.”
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Kurds can appoint prime ministers. They are political masters.
If Maliki continues to reject this he will be killed by his own shias. Sistani is going to sent assassins. Nicca is doomed
