Category: Iraq

Haidar al-Abadi, the UK-educated engineer appointed to form a government in Baghdad The political crisis in Iraq intensified on Monday after the country’s president named a new prime minister to replace Nouri al-Maliki , raising fears of a prolonged power struggle amid the raging battle with Islamist insurgents. In a major blow to Mr Maliki, the largest grouping in parliament nominated Haidar al-Abadi, a member of Mr Maliki’s own Shia-dominated party, as prime […]

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;Iraq’s political crisis headed toward confrontation after the president designated the deputy parliament speaker to form the next government and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dismissed the appointment, claiming he was the rightful nominee. President Fuad Masum selected Haider al-Abadi, a spokesman for Mr. Maliki’s own Dawa Party, after he was nominated by the largest political bloc earlier in the day. He now has 30 days to choose a new cabinet of ministers. "What happened had no value at all," Mr. Maliki said in a nationally televised address, flanked by a few dozen of his political allies. "My nomination is still valid and we will correct this mistake for sure." Mr. Maliki blamed his loss on U.S. diplomats, accusing […]

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Iraq ’s President Fouad Masoum asked the deputy speaker of parliament to try to form a new cabinet and end a three-month political stalemate that’s helped Islamist insurgents seize large swaths of the country. While the U.S. quickly backed Masoum’s designation of Haidar al-Abadi, embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected Masoum’s move, setting the stage for further political deadlock and potentially a confrontation after Maliki sent troops into the streets of Baghdad early today. Masoum tapped Abadi hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pulled support from Maliki, warning him not to hinder the political process while the country is under threat from the Islamic State’s advances across the north. The U.S. and Iraqi political parties have blamed Maliki’s divisive policies for the onslaught in northern Iraq by the Sunni militant group, and President Barack Obama has tied expanded U.S. military strikes against the al-Qaeda breakaway group to […]

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The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday, but the aid has so far been limited to automatic rifles and ammunition. Previously, the U.S. sold arms in Iraq only to the government in Baghdad, which has largely failed in recent years to transfer them to the Kurdish forces in the north, American officials have said. Baghdad made some transfers with American help in recent days, since U.S. airstrikes began to support Kurdish forces fighting off the Islamic State advance toward the northern city of Irbil. But U.S. officials decided to begin their own deliveries. The Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to Islamic State militants in recent weeks, in part because they were outgunned and at times ran out of ammunition, officials said. The weapons […]

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Production from the Atrush block in the Kurdish north of Iraq should start in 2015 but operations are on hold because of the violence, energy company TAQA said. U.S. President Barack Obama ordered limited airstrikes against Sunni-led insurgents in the mountainous north of Iraq last week. In an address Saturday, the president said the strikes "successfully destroyed arms and equipment" held by the militants. The semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government last week said oil operations in the north deserved close monitoring, though were largely unaffected by the violence. Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., known by its Arabic initials TAQA, said it suspended operations at the region’s Atrush block as a security precaution. "TAQA has suspended its operations at the Atrush block as a result of recent developments and escalating instability around the Kurdistan Region of Iraq," it announced: Sunday. Several other energy companies operating in the area […]

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For months now, Sunni militants from the Islamic State (better known as ISIS ) have been seizing control of large swathes of Iraq. ISIS is now threatening a major oil-producing region of Iraq But it wasn’t  until they encroached into semi-autonomous Kurdish territory and near the Kurdish capital of Erbil — an oil boomtown full of Western companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil — that the Obama administration decided to authorize airstrikes against ISIS. That rather felicitous timing has already led a few commentators to  suggest that the current US intervention is all about oil. That’s probably overstating things — the US intervention seems to have a variety of goals here , like protecting the Kurds more generally and preventing ISIS from massacring Iraq’s Yazidis. But it’d also be wrong to pretend that oil is totally irrelevant to the larger crisis in Iraq. Iraq is currently the world’s seventh-largest oil […]

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The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday. Previously, the U.S. had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, but the Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to Islamic State militants in recent weeks. The officials wouldn’t say which U.S. agency is providing the arms or what weapons are being sent, but one official said it isn’t the Pentagon. The CIA has historically done similar quiet arming operations. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation publicly. The move to directly aid the Kurds underscores the level of U.S. concern about the Islamic State militants’ gains in the north, and reflects the persistent administration view that the Iraqis must take the necessary steps […]

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s highest court ruled on Monday that Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s bloc is the biggest in parliament, meaning he could retain his position, state television reported. The president, according to the constitution, must now ask Maliki to form a new government in Iraq, which is facing a major challenge from Islamic State Sunni insurgents and widepread sectarian bloodshed. Maliki, serving in a caretaker capacity since an inconclusive election in April, has defied calls from Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shi’ites and regional power broker Iran to step aside to make room for a less polarizing figure. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Louise Ireland )

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s highest court ruled on Monday that Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s bloc is the biggest in parliament, meaning he could retain his position, state television reported. The president, according to the constitution, must now ask Maliki to form a new government in Iraq, which is facing a major challenge from Islamic State Sunni insurgents and widepread sectarian bloodshed. Maliki, serving in a caretaker capacity since an inconclusive election in April, has defied calls from Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shi’ites and regional power broker Iran to step aside to make room for a less polarizing figure. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Louise Ireland )

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Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is taking his struggle to keep his job to the courts after announcing he will file a legal complaint on Monday against the country’s newly elected president. The deadlock over a new government has plunged Iraq into a political crisis at a time it is fighting a land grab by militants from the Islamic State in the country’s north and west. Al-Maliki has resisted calls for his resignation and the political infighting could hamper efforts to stem advances by the Sunni militants. Senior U.S. officials said Monday that the Obama administration, which launched airdrops and airstrikes last week to support Kurdish and Iraqi forces battling the militants, has begun directly providing weapons to the Kurdish peshmerga forces who have started to make gains against the al-Qaida breakaway group. In a televised speech after midnight Sunday, al-Maliki declared he will file […]

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