Premier Abadi addressing parliament during swearing in
session of his new cabinet (Al Jazeera)
September 8, 2014 Prime Minister Haider Abadi’s new
government was approved by Iraq’s parliament. As usual since 2005, all the
major winners in the elections were given a position, which allows them to
share in the spoils that come from running government offices. This was
highlighted in the western press as a new “inclusive” administration, but was
really nothing new at all. More importantly if there were hope that this new
cabinet would help bring the country’s feuding political parties together to
provide a unified stance towards the insurgency they would be disappointed.
Premier Abadi was successful in fulfilling one of his early
promises to create a smaller cabinet. 23
ministers were sworn in on September 8 with two more, Defense and Interior unfilled
for now because of political disagreements. In comparison, Nouri al-Maliki’s
original government announced in December 2010 had 30 ministers with him as
acting Defense, Interior and National Security Ministers. By April 2011 a
larger administration was in office with a whopping 40 ministers, but Maliki
never let go of the security ones. He would eventually name an acting Defense
Minister and a deputy Interior Minister, while the National Security office was
disbanded. When broken down by list Abadi’s State of Law, which is made up of
Dawa, the Independents and the Badr Organization got six ministries, the
National Alliance consisting of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the
Sadrists, Fadhila, and the National Reform Trend received 7 ministries.
Together that was 56% of the new cabinet. The Najafi brothers Mutahidun were
given three ministries, while Deputy Premier Salah al-Mutlaq’s Arabiya, Loyalty
to Anbar and the Iraqi Coalition each received one. Together the Sunni parties
ended up with 26% of the ministries. The Kurdish lists got two positions, Iyad
Allawi’s secular Nationalist Coalition was given one, and a Christian party
took one as well. In comparison, the April 2011 government was split between
the Shiite religious parties holding 21 of 40 ministries, 52%, the Sunnis had
12, 30%, the Kurds 6, 15%, and a Christian party one. The ethnosectarian
breakdown was roughly the same between the two administrations. That showed
that reports about inclusiveness were ahistorical as Maliki’s government was
made up of just a wide range of parties as Abadi’s.
Maliki’s Original
December 2010 Cabinet
Total ministers: 30
Shiite parties: 14, 46%
State of Law: 6
National Alliance: 8
Sunni parties: 12, 40%
Centralist Alliance: 2
Iraqi National Movement: 10
Kurdish parties: 3, 10%
Kurdish Coalition: 3
Minorities: 1
Maliki’s April 2011
Cabinet
Total ministries: 40
Shiite Parties: 21, 52%
State of Law: 8
National Alliance: 13
Sunni parties: 12, 30%
White Iraqiya: 1
Centralist Alliance: 2
Iraqi National Movement: 9
Kurdish parties: 6, 15%
Kurdish Coalition: 6
Minorities: 1
Abadi’s September
2014 Cabinet
Total ministries: 23
Shiite parties: 13, 56%
State of Law 6
National Alliance 7
Sunni parties: 6, 26%
Arabiya: 1
Loyalty to Anbar: 1
Iraq Coalition: 1
Mutahidun: 3
Kurdish parties 2, 8%
Kurdish Coalition: 2
Secular parties: 1
Nationalist Coalition 1
Minorities: 1
More importantly the new premier will have a tough time
ahead of him just getting his new ruling coalition to work together. The reason
why the Interior Ministry is empty is because former Transportation Minister
and Badr Organization head Hadi Ameri has been nominated. The United States strongly
objected to Ameri gaining that post because of his militia background. In
2005 Badr was given
control of Interior under the Jaafari government and took over the commando
units, set up secret prisons, carried out sectarian raids, and ran death squads
out of the ministry. Today Ameri is leading his militias in his home province
of Diyala, which Maliki put him in charge of security after the
insurgent summer offensive began. Badr temporarily walked out of the
parliamentary session on the cabinet to protest the fact that Ameri was not
gaining the position. Hussein Shahristani is also being demoted from Deputy
Premier in charge of energy policy under Maliki to Higher Education Minister.
His Independents list, which is part of Abadi’s State of Law has rejected the
office. The Sunni parties are supposed to get the Defense Ministry, but they
can’t decide upon a name. Khalid Obeidi, an ex-Air Force general under Saddam
Hussein, and a former
nominee for Defense by the Iraqi National Movement after the 2010 elections
has been mentioned
as a candidate. The Kurds objected to his name back then because of his
role with the former regime. Finally, the Kurdish parties have given the new
prime minister a three month deadline to meet their demands over oil policy,
the budget, and the disputed territories. In fact, the Kurds were considering
not showing up at parliament on September 8 because Abadi had not responded to
their desires beforehand, but attended because they realized Abadi had the
votes to form a new administration without them, and were under pressure from
the United States, Iran, and the United Nations to show up. There is internal
dissent within the Kurdish parties as well with one report from Rudaw
saying they had not finalized the names for the two ministries they received,
which were Finance and Culture. All together this paints a picture of a
dysfunctional government being put together just like the previous ones. That’s
not to say that these divisions cannot be overcome, but Abadi has a full plate
in front of him. The Shiite and Sunni parties are internally divided over who
should be Defense and Interior Ministers. The Kurds have very little faith in
Baghdad after the treatment they received at the hands of Maliki, and Abadi
needs to take immediate steps to win them back. New Oil Minister Adel Abdul
Mahdi of the Supreme Council might help as he has a long relationship with the
Kurds. Still his party has expressed more centralizing ideas about energy
policy in recent times. That’s nothing to say about the Sunni populace. Many of
the Sunni politicians come from provinces that are partly under insurgent
control, and some of their constituents are now supporting the militants.
There’s no telling whether any of the new ministers have any standing in
central and nothern Iraq that will be able to win back those areas.
Prime Minister Abadi has gone through a lot of struggles and
his government has not even really started. His nomination for premier caused
huge internal problems within State of Law as Maliki was intent upon holding
onto power. The parliamentary session to approve his new cabinet faced walkouts
and threats of boycotts. Two major Shiite parties are unhappy with him, and two
of the most important ministries Interior and Defense are empty. Both the Kurds
and the Sunnis also need to be won over as well. This is a huge number of tasks
standing in front of the new premier, and there’s no telling whether he will be
able to do anything about them. His two predecessors Ibrahim Jafaari and Maliki
talked about reforms as well when they took office and never did anything
substantial about them. Abadi has even less time to prove his worth as a
unifier than those two.
SOURCES
Buratha News, “Hadi al-Amiri
receives general supervision of the security file in Diyala province,” 6/13/14
Fahim, Kareem and Ahmed, Azam, “Lawmakers Approve Cabinet in
Iraq, but 2 Posts Are Empty,” New York Times, 9/8/14
Gutman, Roy, “Discord greets Iraq’s ‘unity government;’
Kurds boycott,” McClatchy Newspapers, 9/9/14
Iraq Oil Report, “UPDATE: Abadi forms government, Abdulmahdi
becomes Oil Minister,” 9/8/14
Al Jazeera, “Iraq’s government: united and inclusive?”
9/9/14
Muir, Jim, “Legacy of mistrust haunts new Iraqi government,”
BBC, 9/9/14
Mustafa, Hamza, “Iraq: Abadi faces tough choices in filling
key jobs,” Asharq al-Awsat, 9/10/14
Al Rafidayn, “Washington vetoed Ameri-Zubaidi as Minister of
Defense,” 9/8/14
Al Rafidayn, Alsumaria TV, “Al-Maliki Submits Names Of
Candidates For Key Ministries To Parliament,” MEMRI Blog, 3/29/11
Rudaw, “Kurds Undecided among Themselves, Despite Endorsing
Iraq Cabinet,” 9/9/14
Sowell, Kirk, “Inside Iraqi Politics No. 11,” 3/27/11
- “The Political Struggle for Security Control in Iraq,”
Global Security, 3/29/11
Visser, Reidar, “The Iraqi Parliament Approves the Abbadi
Cabinet,” Iraq and Gulf Analysis, 9/9/14
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