Washington has threatened to end US support for Iraq if former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has been nominated by the Shia coalition, is reappointed.
While his ties to Iran have been cited as the main reason for his rejection, Maliki, who served as premier from 2006-2014, was a divisive figure. During his time in charge Iraq experienced graft, violence and anarchy.
In an overt intervention in Iraq’s affairs, US president Donald Trump warned on his Truth Social platform that Maliki “would be a very bad choice” as prime minister.
“Last time Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again,” he added.
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“Because of his insane policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq and, if we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom.”
Trump has been supported by US legislators who wrote in a letter that Iraq must be free to choose its prime minister, but said “the United States will make its own sovereign decisions regarding the next government in line with American interests.”
Reuters reported recently that the US also threatened sanctions if Iran-allied political factions were included in the next government.
Iraq’s politicians cannot ignore Trump’s remarks, as the country’s oil export revenues are held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
A veteran figure in the Shia fundamentalist Dawa party, Maliki fled Iraq and lived in Iran from 1982-1990 and in Syria until 2003. He returned after the US invaded Iraq and ousted the secular government of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who appointed Shia politicians to the key posts of oil, defence and information.
During his eight years in office, Maliki was accused of corruption and fuelling sectarian violence. He recruited Shia militias to enforce his policies and exploited his tight ties to Iran.
His promotion of Shia ascendancy and anti-Sunni and anti-Kurd policies and violent repression elicited Sunni protests in 2012-2013.
Unrest led to the crackdown that contributed to the emergence in 2014 of the Sunni Muslim Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (also known as Isis).
Its rebellion took hold in Iraq as the Maliki administration appropriated payroll funds for the armed forces, which were rendered inadequate to meet the challenge posed by the rapid rise of Islamic State. The army suffered a series of debacles that climaxed in the fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second city and commercial hub, and the expansion of Islamic State into Syria.
This led the US to insist that Maliki must resign, which he did in August 2014. Subsequently, he served twice as vice-president under Iraq’s sectarian system of governance that dictates a Kurd must be president, the prime minister a Shia Muslim and the parliamentary speaker a Sunni Muslim.
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