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| (Al Aalem) |
Iraq’s President
Barham Salah named a new candidate for interim prime minister. He is the
ex-governor of Najaf Adnan Zurfi who is currently a parliamentarian for the
Nasr block led by former premier Haidar al-Abadi. He is already earning
opposition from some sectors, which means there will be plenty more
negotiations behind closed doors before he can even name a cabinet and a new
government.
Adnan Zurfi has a long history in Iraqi opposition politics and the
post-Saddam order. He was born in Najaf in 1966, and received a bachelor’s and
master’s degree in religious studies. In 1983 he joined the Dawa Party and was
arrested in 1988 and jailed at the Abu Ghraib prison. During the 1991 uprising
he was able to escape and ended up immigrating to the United States where he
became a citizen. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq he returned to his home and
formed the Wafa Movement. In 2004, he was appointed the governor of Najaf by the Coalition Provisional Authority and
opposed Moqtada al-Sadr’s revolts there. In 2006 he went to work at the
Interior Ministry in intelligence. In 2009 he was elected governor of Najaf after forming an alliance with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State
of Law list, and again in 2013. That angered the Islamic Supreme Council of
Iraq (ISCI) that formerly ran the governorate. They accused him of corruption
and carrying out assassinations of his opponents. (1) In 2015, he asked for
parliament to dismiss the Najaf council resulting in the Sadrists and ISCI to
join together and voting him out instead. In 2018 he won a seat in parliament
with the Nasr list which he leads in the legislature. While no longer a member of the Dawa Party
he has kept his contacts with it and aligned with it in order to win the Najaf
governorship and his seat in parliament. He was also friendly with the
Americans when he returned to the country leading to his first stint at running
Najaf.
Zurfi’s immediate
task is to win over the ruling parties so that he can get a cabinet through
parliament. The seven major Shiite parties formed a committee with
the encouragement of Iran to pick a new PM, but the Fatah list led by Badr’s
Hadi Amiri rejected his nomination. On the other hand, it appears that the
Kurds are willing to give him a chance. Zurfi has an advantage over his predecessor
Mohammed Allawi who was an independent. He gave up on trying to be premier when he tried to form a non-partisan cabinet.
Zurfi can learn a lesson by not pushing that matter and allowing the ruling parties
to pick his ministers. Before he can even do that though he has to win over
Fatah otherwise he might end up another failure.
FOOTNOTES
1. Sowell, Kirk, “Inside Iraqi Politics No. 44,”
8/16/12
SOURCES
Al-Aalem, “Officially .. Adnan Al-Zurfi as Prime Minister, who is he?”
3/17/20
Dri, Karwan Faidhi, “Iraq’s president tasks Adnan al-Zurfi with forming
new government: state media,” Rudaw, 3/17/20
Gebeily, Maya, “Iraq’s PM-designate Adnan Zurfi, Shiite moderate with US
ties,” Agence France Presse, 3/17/20
Kazimi, Nibras, “An Initial Look at the Registrants for Provincial
Election,” Talisman Gate, 6/12/08
Al-Mada, “Blocks Hakim and al-Sadr and the Dawa Party organize indoors
ally in Najaf to lead the new government,” 6/8/13
- “Shiite forces are trying to unite by choosing a candidate for prime
minister and his ministerial staff,” 3/11/20
- “State of Law lose half its seats in Maysan, Najaf
and seeks to circumvent the win Douai and the Zurfi,” 4/22/13
NINA, “The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan welcomes al-Zurfi’s mandate to
form the government,” 3/17/20
Shafaaq News, “Najaf provincial council dismiss
al-Zurfi from office,” 7/13/15
Sowell, Kirk, “Inside Iraqi Politics No. 44,”
8/16/12
Visser, Reidar, “Mixed Outcome for Maliki as Muthanna and Najaf Elect New
Governors,” Historiae, 5/1/09
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