August 1, 2010
Iraq: Political crisis deepens as Parliament session scrapped
Margaret Hassan, the Irish-born head of operations for Care International, who was taken hostage in October 2004 and was shot a month later
Last Tuesday Iraqs Parliament indefinitely postponed what would have been only its second session since March elections, extending a deadlock that has prevented formation of a new government.
The delay is the latest setback in a nearly five-month process, and comes barely more than a month before US combat troops are set to withdraw from Iraq.
Iraq: Political crisis deepens as Parliament session scrapped
Margaret Hassan, the Irish-born head of operations for Care International, who was taken hostage in October 2004 and was shot a month later
Last Tuesday Iraqs Parliament indefinitely postponed what would have been only its second session since March elections, extending a deadlock that has prevented formation of a new government.
The delay is the latest setback in a nearly five-month process, and comes barely more than a month before US combat troops are set to withdraw from Iraq.
“We are postponing the session until further notice because the political entities failed to reach any agreement”, Fuad Massoum, who as the oldest member of Parliament holds the post of caretaker speaker, told a news conference.
“We held a meeting this morning with the heads of the parliamentary blocs and we agreed to give more time to political entities to reach agreement regarding the selection of a speaker and his two deputies.”
He added: “The representatives of the political entities insisted on calling the current government a caretaker administration”.
Tuesday’s session was to have been only the second since the March 7 parliamentary elections. The first, on June 14, was adjourned after only 20 minutes.
The selection of a new speaker and president -- ahead of the naming of a new premier -- is likely to be part of a grand bargain among Iraq’s competing political blocs, further complicating the formation of a new government.
Iraq’s four main political groups, none of which has the 163 seats required for a parliamentary majority to form a government on its own, have been unable to hammer out a coalition agreement since the nationwide vote.
Former Premier Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc finished first in the election with 91 seats, followed closely by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law alliance with 89. The Iraqi National Alliance, a group of Shiite religious parties, finished third with 70 seats.
The political vacuum continues to dog Iraq only around a month before US combat troops are due to leave the country at the end of August.
“It is a disappointing decision”, said Salim al-Jubouri, an MP with the Sunnite Tawafuk Party. “Each day that passes means the suffering is increasing, the security situation is aggravating, and we are moving far from the interests of the people”.
However, Kurdish MP Saeed Rasul said the postponement was “positive”, arguing it was “better than entering the Parliament hall without having reached an agreement”.
“We held a meeting this morning with the heads of the parliamentary blocs and we agreed to give more time to political entities to reach agreement regarding the selection of a speaker and his two deputies.”
He added: “The representatives of the political entities insisted on calling the current government a caretaker administration”.
Tuesday’s session was to have been only the second since the March 7 parliamentary elections. The first, on June 14, was adjourned after only 20 minutes.
The selection of a new speaker and president -- ahead of the naming of a new premier -- is likely to be part of a grand bargain among Iraq’s competing political blocs, further complicating the formation of a new government.
Iraq’s four main political groups, none of which has the 163 seats required for a parliamentary majority to form a government on its own, have been unable to hammer out a coalition agreement since the nationwide vote.
Former Premier Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc finished first in the election with 91 seats, followed closely by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law alliance with 89. The Iraqi National Alliance, a group of Shiite religious parties, finished third with 70 seats.
The political vacuum continues to dog Iraq only around a month before US combat troops are due to leave the country at the end of August.
“It is a disappointing decision”, said Salim al-Jubouri, an MP with the Sunnite Tawafuk Party. “Each day that passes means the suffering is increasing, the security situation is aggravating, and we are moving far from the interests of the people”.
However, Kurdish MP Saeed Rasul said the postponement was “positive”, arguing it was “better than entering the Parliament hall without having reached an agreement”.
In a statement following confirmation of the postponement, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed that the government had not “signed any strategic accords or treaties, nor made any special nominations, and has only distributed funds that have been approved by Parliament”.
US and Iraqi officials have warned of the dangers of an upsurge in violence as negotiations on forming a coalition drag on, giving insurgent groups an opportunity to further destabilize the country.
Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staffs, arrived in Baghdad last Tuesday to review plans for the American troop drawdown and efforts to form a governing coalition.
“We don’t see anything right now that will affect the transition and the continued troop drawdown”, he told reporters at a press conference in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.
His visit followed comments a week earlier from President Barack Obama calling on Iraqi political parties to form a government “without delay”, and less than a month after Vice-President Joseph Biden visited Iraq to urge politicians to put aside personal ambitions and form a government.
There are currently 77,500 US soldiers in Iraq but all combat troops are due out by September 1, leaving a training and advisory force of 50,000 behind which is itself scheduled to withdraw by December 2011.
Blix: the ‘poor judgement’ of Bush, Blair
In London, meanwhile, the independent British inquiry investigating the factors that led up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 heard testimony last week from the former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix that the judgment of Britain and the United States in invading Iraq on the basis of evidence of weapons of mass destruction was clearly “poor”.
Giving evidence, Blix said, “I have never questioned the good faith” of then-US President George W. Bush and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the conflict.
“What I question was the good judgment, particularly in Bush but also in Blair’s judgment” in accepting the intelligence that suggested the regime of Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) -- the stated reason for war -- he said.
US and Iraqi officials have warned of the dangers of an upsurge in violence as negotiations on forming a coalition drag on, giving insurgent groups an opportunity to further destabilize the country.
Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staffs, arrived in Baghdad last Tuesday to review plans for the American troop drawdown and efforts to form a governing coalition.
“We don’t see anything right now that will affect the transition and the continued troop drawdown”, he told reporters at a press conference in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.
His visit followed comments a week earlier from President Barack Obama calling on Iraqi political parties to form a government “without delay”, and less than a month after Vice-President Joseph Biden visited Iraq to urge politicians to put aside personal ambitions and form a government.
There are currently 77,500 US soldiers in Iraq but all combat troops are due out by September 1, leaving a training and advisory force of 50,000 behind which is itself scheduled to withdraw by December 2011.
Blix: the ‘poor judgement’ of Bush, Blair
In London, meanwhile, the independent British inquiry investigating the factors that led up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 heard testimony last week from the former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix that the judgment of Britain and the United States in invading Iraq on the basis of evidence of weapons of mass destruction was clearly “poor”.
Giving evidence, Blix said, “I have never questioned the good faith” of then-US President George W. Bush and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the conflict.
“What I question was the good judgment, particularly in Bush but also in Blair’s judgment” in accepting the intelligence that suggested the regime of Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) -- the stated reason for war -- he said.
Blix was executive chairman of the United Nations weapons inspection team in Iraq from March 2000 to June 2003, charged with finding the WMD that London and Washington were convinced Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hiding.
Such weapons were never found, undermining the whole basis for a conflict that left thousands of Iraqis and foreign soldiers dead.
Blix told the Iraq inquiry in London that he initially believed Iraq had WMD, saying that while it had “unilaterally” destroyed much of the weapons it used in the early 1990s, elements remained that could have been built on.
He told the panel that he felt at first that a British dossier setting out the intelligence case in September 2002 was “plausible”, adding: “I felt that Iraq retained weapons of mass destruction”.
However, he began to change his view after January 2003 because of a greater willingness by the Iraqis to cooperate with his inspectors and because sites identified by intelligence documents kept coming up empty.
“What was really important was about this business of sites given, was that when we reported we did not find any WMD they should have realized in Washington and London that their sources were poor”, he said.
Blix said he informed Blair and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of his concerns, telling the inquiry: “I alerted them that we were sceptical. Certainly, I gave the warning.
The former inspector said he wanted to continue the inspections and so indeed had Britain. “But the military timetable [already set by the Bush Administration] did not permit that”, he indicated.
