Amir congratulates Iraq PM-designate

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 3, (Agencies): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah congratulated the Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Adel Abdulmahdi for his assignment to form a government. His Highness the Amir, in a cable to Abdulmahdi, wished the Prime Minister-designate the best of luck towards meeting the aspirations of the Iraqi people.

His Highness the Amir hoped Iraq enjoyed development and prosperity. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Sabah sent cables to Abdulmahdi to congratulate him on his assignment.

A veteran Kurdish politician assumed office on Wednesday as Iraq’s new president after tapping an independent Shiite politician for the post of prime minister, ending nearly five months of political deadlock. Barham Saleh, 58, who previously served as Iraq’s planning minister and the prime minister of the selfruled Kurdish region, was elected president by parliament and sworn in on Tuesday.

He then tapped Adel Abdul-Mahdi, 76, an independent Shiite politician and former vice-president, to form the next government. Under an unofficial agreement dating back to the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraq’s presidency – a largely ceremonial role – is held by a Kurd, while the prime minister is Shiite and the parliament speaker is Sunni. Both Salih and Abdul- Mahdi are longstanding members of the political class that has dominated Iraqi politics since then. On Wednesday, State TV broadcast a formal handover ceremony at the presidential palace in Baghdad’s Green Zone, where Saleh was saluted by an honor guard and received by former president Fuad Masum.

Abdulmahdi emerged as a compromise candidate after two Shiite-led blocs each claimed to have majority support in parliament. He had strong backing from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers won the most seats in the May elections and who formed a bloc with the current prime minister, Haider al-Abadi.

The other bloc, which is dominated by politicians and militia leaders close to Iran, initially rejected Abdulmahdi but then agreed to support him after Sunni and Kurdish parties rallied to his side, according to a Shiite politician who took part in the discussions. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.

Consensus
The politician said Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, had made it clear through mediators that the job of prime minister should not go to someone who had held the post before and had urged consensus. “The opinion yesterday was to have Abdul-Mahdi tasked quickly in order not to delay the process any further,” the politician said. Abdulmahdi, an economist by training who comes from a prominent Shiite tribe based in southern Iraq, spent several years in exile in France, where he worked for think-tanks and edited magazines in French and Arabic.

He joined Iraq’s Community Party in the 1970s, but later switched to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an exiled opposition group established in neighboring Iran. He remained with SCIRI, which emerged as a powerful religious party after the 2003 US-led invasion, until the party split last year, when he became an independent. After the invasion, he served as vice-president, finance minister and oil minister. He has 30 days to submit his cabinet to parliament for approval.

Outgoing prime minister Haider al-Abadi threw in the towel last month after deadly unrest in the southern city of Basra cost his fragile alliance the support of populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. Sadr’s list won the largest share of seats in the May polls. And after dumping Abadi, it swung behind the pro- Iran bloc led by Hadi al-Ameri’s Conquest Alliance – a coalition of anti-jihadist veterans close to Tehran. A spokesman for Conquest Alliance, Ahmad al-Assadi, told reporters late Tuesday that “the largest coalition resolved the issue by naming the prime minister” hinting his bloc had supported Abdulmahdi’s nomination, but without offering up any concrete evidence.

Iraq has a proportional system designed to prevent a slide back into dictatorship following the 2003 ouster of late dictator Saddam Hussein. The largely ceremonial role of president, now taken by the 58-year-old Saleh, has been reserved for the Kurds since Iraq’s first multi-party elections in 2005. Under the power-sharing deal, the post of prime minister is held by a Shiite, while the speaker of parliament is Sunni Arab – a post filled last month by Mohammed al-Halbusi.

The 76-year-old Abdel Mahdi, a former Iraqi vice-president, has proven political credentials and is seen in Iraqi circles as an independent.

In a country long a political battleground between the United States and Iran as they fight for influence, he is regarded as a rare figure of consensus. An economist by training, he was once a senior member of a party close to Iran. But he has also won the backing of US and European leaders. Now he has just 30 days to navigate tangled Iraqi politics and form a government. If he fails, then another candidate will have to be chosen to pick up the baton.

A Shiite and native of Baghdad, he is nonetheless credited with having good relations with a number of Kurdish leaders. This could be crucial, coming a year after a disastrous referendum in which Iraqi Kurdistan voted overwhelmingly for independence. The vote triggered a punishing backlash from Baghdad, which imposed economic penalties and sent federal troops to push Kurdish forces out of oil fields vital for the region’s economy.

Under a tacit accord between the region’s two main factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the PUK hold the federal presidency and the KDP the post of Iraqi Kurdistan president. But the Iraqi Kurdish presidency has been left vacant since KDP leader Massud Barzani’s mandate ended following the September 2017 referendum that he championed. In a bitter dispute for power, Barzani had backed for president Fuad Hussein, his 72-year-old former chief of staff and veteran of the opposition to Saddam. But in a blow to Barzani, the post went to Saleh, a moderate who has served both as Iraqi deputy premier and Kurdish prime minister.

He was part of an interim authority put in place by the United States following the 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam. He later became deputy prime minister under Nuri al-Maliki then returned to the Kurdish regional capital Erbil in 2009 to become head of the Kurdistan government. Meanwhile, results are also due late Wednesday after Sunday’s polls for the Kurdish parliament.

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