Interestingly Maliki also says State of Law is biggest #Iraq parliament bloc as of today. Effectively he's ignoring bigger pan-Shia bloc #PT
If you needed confirmation, here it is straight from #Iraq PMO: Maliki says he will not withdraw his PM candidacy
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'We’ll take back Spain': Fighters claim ISIS to seize 'occupied lands'
Published time: July 04, 2014 13:53
Edited time: July 04, 2014 15:31
Conflict, EU, History, Human rights, Military, Religion, Security, Violence
A group of jihadists claiming to be part of ISIS have vowed to invade Spain along with all other “occupied lands” in a video posted on the web.
The men say Spain is the land of their forefathers and that they are prepared to die for their nascent Islamic State.
The video of two men claiming to be militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has taken the Spanish media by storm. The minute-long footage shows them speaking in Spanish, and saying that ISIS will take over Spain.
“I tell you, Spain is the land of our forefathers, and, Allah willing, we are going to liberate it, with the might of Allah,” says one of the men. He adds that the group won’t stop at Spain and intends to spread its Islamic Caliphate across the world. “I say to the entire world as a warning: We are living under the Islamic banner, the Islamic Caliphate. We are going to die for it until we liberate all the occupied lands, from Jakarta to Andalusia,” he said.The footage has not yet been independently verified, but it would not be the first video released by the group. Last month, ISIS released a propaganda video entitled: “There Is No Life Without Jihad” in which Australian and British members of the group appealed in English for Muslims across the world to join their cause. “We have brothers from Bangladesh, from Iraq, from Cambodia, Australia and the UK,” says a militant called Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni, who himself comes from Britain, according to a video caption. Militant Islamist fighters parade on military vehicles along the streets of northern Raqqa province, Syria June 30, 2014. (Reuters) Militant Islamist fighters parade on military vehicles along the streets of northern Raqqa province, Syria June 30, 2014. (Reuters) The extremist Sunni Muslim group began to seize control of towns and cities in Iraq at the beginning of June. Since then it has captured large swathes of the region, straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border and continues to advance on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the creation of an Islamic State, or caliphate, encompassing the lands that the group has taken under its control. He also called on Muslims throughout the world to join the cause and fight for ISIS. "Muslims everywhere, whoever is capable of performing hijrah (emigration) to the Islamic State, then let him do so, because hijrah to the land of Islam is obligatory," he added. So far Iraqi security forces have done little to slow the advance of the Islamist group, with the government appealing for aid from abroad to repel the onslaught. The US has sent 300 military advisors to Iraq to combat the threat and is deploying another 300 troops, helicopters and drones in the area. Saudi Arabia has also deployed 30,000 troops along its border with Iraq, while Russia has sent fighter jets and pilots to support the Baghdad government against ISIS. === Iraq army retakes Saddam's birthplace By Isra'a al-Rubei'i and Maggie Fick BAGHDAD Fri Jul 4, 2014 11:04am EDT Iraqi security forces personnel flash the victory sign during clashes with the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Jurf al-Sakhar, 60 km (40 miles) from the capital February 15, 2014. REUTERS-Alaa Al-Marjani Shi'ite volunteers secure the area from predominantly Sunni militants from the Islamic State, previously called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the desert region between Kerbala and Najaf, south of Baghdad, July 3, 2014. Iraqi insurgents are preparing for an assault on Baghdad, with sleeper cells planted inside the capital to rise up at 'Zero Hour' and aid fighters pushing in from the outskirts, according to senior Iraqi and U.S. security officials. REUTERS-Alaa Al-Marjani Credit: Reuters/Alaa Al-Marjani Related News Israel ready to help Jordan fend off Iraq insurgents if asked UK imams urge British Muslims to shun Syria and Iraq Top Iraq cleric says lack of new government 'regrettable failure' Israel ready to help Jordan fend off Iraq insurgents if asked Indian nurses abducted in Iraq released, to fly home: India official Kurdish diplomat cool to independence advocacy by Israel (Reuters) - The Iraqi army retook Saddam Hussein's home village overnight, a symbolic victory in its struggle to seize back swathes of the country from Sunni insurgents. Backed by helicopter gunships and helped by Shi'ite Muslim volunteers, the army recaptured the village of Awja in an hour-long battle on Thursday night, according to state media, police and local inhabitants. Awja lies 8 km (5 miles) south of Tikrit, a city that remains in rebel hands since Islamic State, formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), launched a lightning assault across northern Iraq last month. The offensive to retake Tikrit began on June 28, but the army has still failed to retake the city which fell after the police and army imploded last month in the face of the militant onslaught that also captured Mosul and other major Sunni areas. The military spokesman of embattled Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Awja had been "totally cleansed" and 30 militants killed, according to state television. A police source told Reuters three insurgents had been killed. The birthplace of Saddam, Awja benefited hugely from the largesse of the Sunni dictator before his ousting by the U.S. invasion of 2003 and locals remained fiercely loyal to the man who would select his relatives from the area for top posts. Spokesman Qassim Atta said security forces had seized control of several government buildings, including a water treatment plant, but security sources and residents said militants were still holding Iraqi forces from entering Tikrit. The army said it now held the 50-km (30-mile) stretch of highway running north from the city of Samarra - which is 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad - to Awja. But the mainly Sunni communities along this corridor remain hostile towards government forces and army convoys continue to come under guerrilla attack. Military officials in the United States, which has deployed advisers to Iraq, believe the Iraqi army will be able to defend Baghdad but struggle to recapture lost territory, mainly because of logistical weaknesses. Government forces could benefit if cracks in the loose alliance of insurgents in Sunni majority areas widens. In the town of Hawija, site of infighting last month between Islamist fighters and Sunni militia forces, members of local Sunni tribes told Reuters that community members had organised to fight against the militants in control of the town. Members of the Al-Obaidi tribe were angered over the militants' seizure of homes of local sheikhs and officials and had formed an armed group that killed five insurgents on patrol in the town on Friday, residents said. "REGRETTABLE FAILURE" The onslaught by Islamic State, an al Qaeda splinter group that has declared a medieval-style Islamic caliphate erasing the borders of Iraq and Syria, and threatened to march on Baghdad, has left the Shi'ite-led government in disarray. Parliament was unable this week to pick a new government to unite the ethnically divided country, something the most senior Shi'ite cleric on Friday called a "regrettable failure". In a sermon delivered by his aide, Sistani Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on politicians to avoid "mistakes of the past that have grave consequences for the future of the Iraqis." Sistani reiterated his call for the government to have "broad national acceptance", a formulation many officials interpret as a call for Maliki - blamed by Sunnis for marginalizing them and worsening ethnic tensions - to go. In the governing system set up after Saddam's fall, the prime minister has traditionally been Shi'ite, the speaker of parliament a Sunni and the largely ceremonial president a Kurd. None of the blocs has settled on a nominee. On June 13, Sistani called for Iraqis to take up arms against the insurgency - an unusually assertive declaration for the 83-year-old cleric, who favors a behind-the-scenes role. In the Friday sermon, he reiterated volunteer fighters should be organised through an official framework. The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament on Thursday to plan a referendum on independence. Although they share Baghdad’s determination to face down the Islamist insurgency, many Kurds see the crisis as a golden opportunity to create their own state. (Additional reporting by Raheem Salman and Alexander Dziadosz in Baghdad and Isabel Coles in Arbil; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) ========== Iraq's Maliki rejects pressure to give up premiership Fri, Jul 04 15:03 PM EDT image 1 of 3 By Isra'a al-Rubei'i and Maggie Fick BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki refused on Friday to give up his quest for a third term in power, defying a chorus of critics demanding his replacement as the country faces an existential threat from Islamist insurgents. Maliki has come under mounting pressure since militants of the group now calling itself the Islamic State rampaged through swathes of the country last month and declared a mediaeval-style caliphate on land they have captured in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
"I will never give up my candidacy for the post of prime minister," Maliki said in a statement read out on state television by an announcer. "I will remain a soldier, defending the interests of Iraq and its people," he added, in the face of what he called terrorists and their allies.He was referring to the Islamic State and some of the most prominent armed Sunni groups who have taken control of large parts of majority-Sunni regions of Iraq. Maliki's statement will complicate the struggle to form a new government to unite the ethnically and religiously divided country, something parliament failed to achieve this week. It extends a political deadlock made all the more dangerous by the pressing threat to Iraq's territorial integrity. Accused by his critics of exacerbating the country's sectarian split, Maliki has come under immense pressure to step down from his Sunni and Kurdish political foes, and even from some in his own Shi'ite camp. In pointed comments in a Friday sermon read by an aide, the country's leading Shi'ite cleric said parliament's inability to form a new government at its first session was a "regrettable failure". Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani reiterated his call for the government to have "broad national acceptance", a formulation that many officials interpret as a call for Maliki - accused by Sunnis of marginalizing them and worsening ethnic tensions - to go. Iraq's implosion has been watched with intense concern by the United States, which invaded in 2003 to topple dictator Saddam Hussein and withdraw in 2011 after a war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Washington has deployed advisers to Iraq. U.S. military officials believe the Iraqi army will be able to defend Baghdad but struggle to recapture lost territory, mainly because of logistical weaknesses. VILLAGE CAPTURED There was some encouragement for the Iraqi army on the battlefield: late on Thursday it scored a symbolic victory by recapturing Awja - the home village of Saddam Hussein - from Sunni insurgents. Backed by helicopter gunships and helped by Shi'ite Muslim volunteers, the army took the village in an hour-long battle, according to state media, police and local inhabitants. Awja lies 8 km (5 miles) south of Tikrit, a city that was captured by the Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as part of its lightning assault last month. Iraqi's police and army imploded in the face of the militant onslaught, which also captured Mosul and other major Sunni areas. A government offensive to retake Tikrit began on June 28, but the army has still failed to win back the city Maliki's military spokesman said Awja had been "totally cleansed" and 30 militants killed, according to state television. A police source told Reuters three insurgents had been killed. The army said it now held the 50-km (30-mile) stretch of highway running north from the city of Samarra - which is 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad - to Awja. But the mainly Sunni communities along this corridor remain hostile towards government forces, and army convoys continue to come under guerrilla attack. Government forces could benefit, however, if cracks in the loose alliance of insurgents in Sunni majority areas widen. In the town of Hawija, site of infighting last month between Islamist fighters and Sunni militia forces, members of local Sunni tribes told Reuters that community members had organised to fight against the militants in control of the town. Members of the Al-Obaidi tribe were angered over the militants' seizure of homes of local sheikhs and officials, and had formed an armed group that killed five insurgents on patrol in the town on Friday, residents said. (Additional reporting Raheem Salman, Ned Parker and Alexander Dziadosz in Baghdad and Isabel Coles in Arbil; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Andrew Roche) إستفتاءات وبيانات المرجعية الدينية |[ حكم المتطوعين في القوات العسكرية والأمنية في شهر رمضان المبارك من الصوم والصلاة ]| بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم سماحة سيدنا ومولانا آية الله العظمى والحجة الكبرى السيد علي الحسيني السيستاني المحترم مُد ظله الوارف أرفع أسمى آيات السلام والتحية إلى مقام سماحتكم الرفيع سائلاً من الله تعالى لكم دوام التوفيق والعمر المديد والصحة الشاملة والنصر العزيز على جميع الأعداء وخصوصاً في هذه الظروف العسيرة الشديدة راجياً أدعيتكم لهذا العبد الخادم المطيع بدوام التوفيق وحسن العاقبة وزيادة العلم والعمل الصالح. مسألة: ما هو رأي سماحتكم في هؤلاء المتطوعين الذين استجابوا لنداء سماحتكم بالالتحاق بالقوات العسكرية والأمنية، وقد يتم تحويلهم من مكانٍ إلى آخر حسب متطلبات الظروف ، وقد أقبل شهر رمضان المبارك ، فما هو حكم صومهم ، وما هو حكم صلاتهم ؟ أدام الله ظلكم العالي على رؤوس الجميع ، ومتعنا الله تعالى بوجودكم إنه سميع مجيب. الأربعاء ٢٦ شعبان سنة ١٤٣٥هـ الموافق ٢٥ / ٦ / ٢٠١٤م الجواب: بسمه تعالى حكمهم القصر والإفطار كأيّ مسافر آخر إلا فيما استثني كما في الباقي في مكان واحد ثلاثين يوماً متردداً ، والله العالم.. والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته. ٢٧ / ٨ / ١٤٣٥ علي الحسيني السيستاني الختم الشريف نددت هيئة علماء المسلمين التي يتزعمها حارث الضاري ,باستهداف القوات العراقية ,مقر من اطلق عليه الضاري لقب “المرجع الديني الشيعي آية الله محمود الحسني الصرخي” في محافظة كربلاء، ووصفته بالاعتداء السافر. ودعى بيان هيئة الضاري ,اهالي جنوب العراق لمؤازرة الصرخي، والمشاركة في التصدي لما وصفه “لظلم حكومة المالكي”، موضحا أن العراق في حاجة لجهود جميع أبنائه “ليتجاوز المحنة التي هو فيها”. وشدد البيان على أن العالم بأجمعه عليه أن يعلم أن “الثورة عراقية بامتياز، وأنها تستهدف الظلم والظالمين”. وقالت الهيئة إن الهجوم -وبحسب المعطيات المتوفرة- جاء بناء على أوامر من نوري المالكي نفسه “في خطوة فُهم منها رغبته في التصعيد ضد هذه المدرسة الفقهية”. وأشاد الضاري بموقف الصرخي، موضحا أنه معروف بمواقفه ضد الاحتلال الأميركي والهيمنة الإيرانية، “وكان وما يزال يندد بسياسات الحكومات المتعاقبة في ظل الاحتلال التي اعتمدت الظلم والتهميش والإقصاء والفساد المالي العام”,بحسب تعبير البيان . وبحسب الهيئة، فقد كان للصرخي كذلك مواقف مؤيدة للحركات السلفية التي انتشرت تحت مسمى “الربيع العربي”، في حين يؤكد بيان الضاري ان الصرخي قد وصف احداث الموصل والانبار بإنها “ثورة شعب مظلوم، وأنها ثورة حق” http://bashaer.iq/permalink/4920.html ملتقى البشائر Iraq chases Baghdad sleeper cells as 'Zero Hour' looms over capital Thu, Jul 03 10:04 AM EDT image By Ned Parker and Oliver Holmes BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi insurgents are preparing for an assault on Baghdad, with sleeper cells planted inside the capital to rise up at "Zero Hour" and aid fighters pushing in from the outskirts, according to senior Iraqi and U.S. security officials. Sunni fighters have seized wide swathes of the north and west of the country in a three week lightning advance and say they are bearing down on the capital, a city of 7 million people still scarred by the intense street fighting between its Sunni and Shi'ite neighborhoods during U.S. occupation. The government says it is rounding up members of sleeper cells to help safeguard the capital, and Shi'ite paramilitary groups say they are helping the authorities. Some Sunni residents say the crackdown is being used to intimidate them. Iraqis speak of a "Zero Hour" as the moment a previously-prepared attack plan would start to unfold. A high-level Iraqi security official estimated there were 1,500 sleeper cell members hibernating in western Baghdad and a further 1,000 in areas on the outskirts of the capital. He said their goal was to penetrate the U.S.-made "Green Zone" - a fortified enclave of government buildings on the west bank of the Tigris - as a propaganda victory and then carve out enclaves in west Baghdad and in outlying areas. “There are so many sleeper cells in Baghdad,” the official said. “They will seize an area and won’t let anyone take it back... In western Baghdad, they are ready and prepared.” A man who describes himself as a member of one such cell, originally from Anbar province, the mainly Sunni Western area that has been a heartland of the insurgency, said he has been working in Baghdad as a laborer while secretly coordinating intelligence for his group of Sunni fighters. The attack on the capital will come soon, said the man, who asked to be called Abu Ahmed. “We are ready. It can come any minute,” he told Reuters during a meeting in a public place, glancing nervously around to see if anyone was watching. “We will have some surprises,” he said. He pulled his baseball cap down tight on his face and stopped speaking anytime a stranger approached. A portly man in his mid-30s wearing a striped sports shirt, the man said he fought as part of an insurgent group called the 1920 Revolution Brigades during the U.S. occupation and was jailed by the Iraqi government from 2007-2009. He gave up fighting in 2010, tired from war and relatively optimistic about the future. But last year, he took up arms again out of anger at a crackdown against Sunni protesters by the Shi'ite-led government, joining the Military Council, a loose federation of Sunni armed groups and tribal fighters that has since emerged as a full-fledged insurgent umbrella group. While it was not possible to verify all details of his story, Reuters reporters are confident of his identity. Like many Sunni fighters, Abu Ahmed is not a member of the al Qaeda offshoot once known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and is ambivalent about the group which launched the latest uprising by seizing the main northern city Mosul on June 10 and shortened its name this week to the Islamic State. Many Sunni armed groups turned against al Qaeda during the U.S. occupation but are now rallying to ISIL's rebellion against the Shi'ite led government, though some say they deplore ISIL's tactics of killing civilians and branding Shi'ites heretics. Abu Ahmed said his own group, which includes former officers in Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein's disbanded army, supports some aims of ISIL. "There are some good members of ISIL and some bad," he said. Of the good ones: "We have the same cause." SECURITY PLANS The government says it can protect the capital and has spies who are tracking sleeper agents like Abu Ahmed to round them up. "We have ample security plans. The sleeper cells are not only in Baghdad but in all other provinces and they are waiting for any chance to carry out attacks," said Lieutenant-General Qassim Atta, the prime minister's military spokesman. “We keep those cells under careful and daily scrutiny and follow up. We have arrested some of them. We have dispatched intelligence members to follow up those cells closely and we have special plans to counter their activities.” An attempt to take Baghdad, a majority Shi'ite city with heavily fortified areas, would be a huge task for a rebellion that has so far concentrated on controlling Sunni areas. Many Baghdadis, Sunnis as well as Shi'ites, say they would fight an insurgency led by militants who want to establish a caliphate. The Iraqi capital was the principle battlefield in Iraq's worst sectarian bloodletting from 2006-2007, with tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, killed in fighting between Sunni insurgents, Shi'ite militias and U.S. troops. Then, millions of people fled the capital and millions more fled homes within it, turning previously mixed neighborhoods into fortresses dominated by one sect or the other. Although it has been at least six years since warring Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militia last held open sway over whole sections of Baghdad, the capital has remained vulnerable to infiltration by ISIL suicide bombers, who strike Shi'ite and government targets almost daily. A senior U.S. intelligence official said Washington had evidence that ISIL was in the process of configuring its forces for a Baghdad assault using a plan that would include coordinated ISIL suicide strikes. However, other U.S. officials believe ISIL could overextend itself were it to try to take all of Baghdad. They say the more likely scenario would be for fighters to seize a Sunni district and cause disruption with bomb attacks. ISIL fighters insist that their plan is to take the capital and topple Baghdad’s political elite. “We will receive orders about Zero Hour,” said Abu Sa'da, an ISIL fighter reached by telephone in Mosul. He said the group had cells in Baghdad and communicated with them by e-mail despite the government's sporadic blocking of Internet in an effort to disrupt the militants. CAT AND MOUSE For now, it is a cat and mouse game in the city. Abu Ahmed said the insurgency had agents in the Iraqi security forces, government ministries and inside the Green Zone. Men like him try to dodge an intensified campaign by the security forces and Shi'ite militias to round up conspirators. There are "more detentions right now especially of ex-military officers and those who had been in American jails," he said. “Their houses are raided by special police and militias, then we never hear about them again. We check the jails, they are not there.” So far, they’ve managed to free 12 of them, at least one with the help of a 20,000 U.S. dollar bribe. He blames harsh treatment by the Iraqi government for forcing them to war, opening his shirt to reveal two dark scars on his chest he says came from interrogations in custody. There was no way to verify his allegations of abuse by the security forces. The prospect of an assault on Baghdad has led Shi'ite paramilitaries, mainly underground since 2008, to mobilize this year to help the authorities fight ISIL. Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, a Shi’ite group Washington believes is funded and armed by Iran, says it has helped round up insurgent agents in Baghdad. The movement says it is taking orders from the government and responding to a fatwa by Shi'ite clergy three weeks ago calling on citizens to help the armed forces. The insurgents' "goal is to control Baghdad and also to forestall the political process in Baghdad. They will try to execute this plot with their sleeper cells,” said Asaib Ahl al-Haq spokesman Ahmed al-Kinani. “We arrest them and hand them over to security forces.” Many Sunnis in Baghdad say such activity has brought back memories of the last decade's civil war, when Shi'ite militias and Sunni insurgents prowled the streets, capturing and killing the innocent under the excuse of rooting out terrorist foes. Now people are disappearing again. A Sunni woman who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared retribution from Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said her brother was first held by police for 13 days in April. Eight hours after he was released, masked Asaib fighters stormed into their house and took him. "Their faces were covered. They had no number plates on their cars," she said. That was the last time she saw him. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Peter Graff) ================ Has ISIS Killed Its Golden Goose? Posted on 26 June 2014. Tags: CBI, ISIS, Mosul Has ISIS Killed Its Golden Goose? By Mark DeWeaver. While it has long been assumed that ISIS gets most of its money from donors in the Gulf, recently declassified documents suggest otherwise. Researchers at the RAND Corporation found that donations actually accounted for less than 5% of the group’s funding during the period from 2005 to 2010. (See this article.) The city of Mosul, rather than Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, turns out to have been, as one researcher put it, “the area that was keeping the group afloat”—through extortion rackets, kidnapping, and robbery. Following the fall of the city on June 10, it’s hard to see how this can continue to be the case. Out of a population of 1.8 million, the BBC has reported that 500,000 have fled. Presumably the wealthiest residents will not be returning any time soon. It is also unclear how Mosul’s remaining state employees are going to be paid. Obviously it won’t be possible to extort money from businesses without customers or collect ransoms from people who can’t afford to leave town. You can’t get blood from a stone after all. It’s not even clear that ISIS could have stolen as much US$ 420 million from the Mosul branch of the Central Bank of Iraq (or, in some accounts, from a combination of the CBI and private banks). While this figure has been widely reported in the media, some analysts have dismissed it as wildly exaggerated. In any case, looting can be only a short-term source of funds. Once the city’s homes and businesses have been stripped of cash and salable assets, this bonanza will come to an end as well. ISIS apparently had a pretty good thing going in Mosul, where it could help itself to a share of the economy of one of Iraq’s largest cities with all but complete impunity. Once this golden goose has stopped laying, I wonder if they won’t end up concluding that they should have left well enough alone. === Iraq's Maliki hopes for government deal by next week Wed, Jul 02 16:27 PM EDT By Ahmed Rasheed and Alexander Dziadosz BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is fighting for his political life as a Sunni insurgency fractures the country, said on Wednesday he hoped parliament could form a new government in its next session after the first collapsed in discord. Baghdad can ill afford a long delay. Large swathes of the north and west have fallen under the control of an al Qaeda splinter group that has declared it is setting up a "caliphate" and has vowed to march on the capital. Yet the mounting concern and pressure from the United States, Iran, the United Nations and Iraq's own Shi'ite clerics have done little to end the paralyzing divisions between Iraq's main ethnic and sectarian blocs. Sunnis and Kurds walked out of parliament's first session on Tuesday, complaining that Shi'ites had failed to nominate a prime minister; they see Maliki as the main obstacle to resolving the crisis and hope he will step aside. Under the system put in place after the United States toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the premiership is traditionally given to a Shi'ite, while the speaker of the house has been a Sunni and the president, a largely ceremonial role, has been a Kurd. In his weekly televised address, Maliki said he hoped parliament could next Tuesday get past its "state of weakness". "God willing, in the next session we will overcome it with cooperation and agreement and openness," he said. "There is no security without complete political stability." But it is far from clear when leaders in Baghdad might reach a consensus. All the main ethnic blocs are beset by internal divisions, and none has yet decided who to put forward for its designated position. Sunnis and Kurds say they want Shi'ites to choose a premier before they announce their nominees, while the Shi'ites say the Sunnis should first name the speaker. "Each bloc has its own problems now," said Muhannad Hussam, a politician and aide to leading Sunni lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq. If the Shi'ite bloc failed to replace Maliki, he said, there was a risk Sunni lawmakers would abandon the political process altogether. "There would be no more Iraq," he said. NEED TO BE PATIENT Longtime Maliki ally Sami Askari said forming a government could take until the end of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. But he played down the risk of the state collapsing, saying Maliki's caretaker government would continue to function. "The reality is that we need to be patient," Askari said. "We will have a government in the end -- but not soon." Residents of Baghdad were increasingly frustrated with the familiar sight of officials squabbling while the country burns.
"I'm so angry with all these politicians," said Dhamee Sattar Shafiq, a university statistics professor, shopping in a mixed neighborhood of Sunnis and Shi'ites. "This country is headed for disaster and these men are just working for their own causes."Down the road, Najaa Hassan, a 54-year-old carpenter, was similarly irritated. "Democracy has brought us many problems that we really don't need," he said. Outside the capital, fighting flared again. Medical sources and witnesses said at least 11 people, including women and children, had been killed when Iraqi helicopters attacked Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad. Witnesses said the helicopters were targeting a municipal building where militants were sheltering, and that the air strike also hit three nearby houses. "We have received 11 bodies and 18 wounded from the helicopters' bombardment. Some children are in critical condition," said Hamid al-Jumaili, a doctor in Shirqat's hospital. The prime minister's military spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassim Atta, made no specific mention of the incident but listed Shirqat as one of several locations where the air force had been active during the past 24 hours. The government faces a formidable foe in the Islamic State, which shortened its name from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant this week and named its leader "caliph", the historical title of successors of the Prophet Mohammad who ruled the Muslim world. "RED CIRCLE" In his first comments since that declaration, the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Tuesday called on Muslims across the world to take up arms and flock to the "caliphate", which spans territory that has fallen out of governmental control in Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State has been working with an amalgam of other Sunni groups including Islamist militias, tribal fighters and former army officers and loyalists of Saddam Hussein, many of whom do not share its rigid ideology but are united by a sense of persecution under Maliki's Shi'ite-led government. Maliki on Wednesday offered an amnesty to tribes who had taken up arms against the government, but excluded those who had "killed and shed blood". The United Nations said on Tuesday more than 2,400 Iraqis had been killed in June alone, making the month by far the deadliest since the height of sectarian warfare during the U.S. "surge" offensive in 2007. Maliki's government, bolstered by civilian volunteers and Shi'ite militias, has managed to stop the militant advance short of the capital, but has been unable to take back the cities that government forces abandoned. The army failed last week to take back Tikrit, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad.
Even if Maliki steps aside - something that is still far from certain - few in Baghdad expect that will mean a swift resolution to the crisis. “His departure would not solve the problem, because Sunnis and Shi’ites will stay at odds with each other and the animosity will continue," said Haidar Jumaa Zeboun, a 31-year-old construction worker in the district of Arasat.Beyond that, there is deep strife within both the Sunni and Shi'ite communities. Police and army in the Shi'ite shrine city of Karbala on Wednesday attempted to arrest a controversial cleric, Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, prompting hours of clashes with his followers, said local police spokesman Colonel Ahmed Al-Hasnawi. (Reporting by Isra' al-Rubei'i, Ahmed Rasheed, Maggie Fick and Alexander Dziadosz in Baghdad; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Kevin Liffey) ========== UPDATE: Kurdistan sidesteps Baghdad legal challenge to exports UPDATE: Kurdistan sidesteps Baghdad legal challenge to exports A worker checks the valve gears of pipes linked to oil tanks at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is run by state-owned pipeline company Botas. (UMIT BEKTAS/Reuters) By Patrick Osgood, Ben Van Heuvelen and Ben Lando of Iraq Oil Report Published Saturday, June 28th, 2014 EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated from its original version to include the Oil Ministry's official response to the KRG and the full text of both press releases, as well as a translation of the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court's June 24 decision.ERBIL – Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) celebrated a June 24 decision of the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq, which declined to issue a temporary ban on independent Kurdish oil exports.The court did not rule on the questi... Akkas field unguarded in Anbar fight Akkas field unguarded in Anbar fight An Iraqi army vehicle secures the Akkas gas field in the western desert of Iraq October 19, 2010. (ALI AL-MASHHADANI/Reuters) By Jamal Naji and Ben Lando of Iraq Oil Report Published Tuesday, July 1st, 2014 Government security forces have stopped guarding the Akkas gas field, in Anbar province, although militants have not yet shown interest in controlling the fledgling facilities. Over the past year, the Korean gas firm Kogas has begun preliminary work there, building a power plant, roads, housing, and offices. At the same time, however, a Sunni protest movement has metastasized into an insurgency led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which on Sunday formally declared Anbar provin... ======================== "BP’s share [in Rumaila] increased to 47.6% & CNPC’s to 46.4%, while Iraq’s was reduced to 6%. Iraq had previously 25% share." Tuesday, 16 September 2014 Iraqi oil from propaganda to reality A series of revisions to production targets will result in lower oil output from Iraq than originally planned. On 4 September, Iraq reached an agreement with BP and the Chinese oil company CNPC to lower the planned production target for Rumaila, the country’s largest oil field. The agreement is not a one-off—it is part of a series of revisions to the targets that had been originally agreed on with international oil companies in 2009. The revisions will lead to a sharp fall in Iraqi oil output relative to the original unrealistic plans. The BP/CNPC deal does not come as a surprise. For months international oil companies have been negotiating lower production targets for the fields they run. ExxonMobil agreed with the Iraqi government on a lower production target for the West Qurna-1 field. Lukoil did the same for West Qurna-2. Likewise for Eni and CNPC, the operators of Zubair and Halfaya, respectively. Only Shell is yet to agree with the Iraqi government on a new output target for the Majnoon field. It is lobbying for a reduction from 1.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) to only 1.o mb/d, but the Iraqi government is holding out for 1.2 mb/d. (The table below provides a summary of the original and revised production targets by field.) Such broad revisions to the original agreements indicate a flaw in the way the contracts had been awarded. The process involved oil companies submitting bids specifying: (1) production target (the peak level of output the company would eventually produce from the field); and (2) remuneration for developing the field and reaching the target. Iraq then chose the bids with the highest production targets (since they result in more revenue) and lowest fees (less cost). But as pointed out by James Hamilton, these auctions encouraged oil companies to exaggerate production targets in order to win the contracts. Once awarded, they began negotiating lower targets to move from “propaganda to the reality”. What does the new reality hold for Iraq? The path of future Iraqi oil production will be significantly lower than originally planned. Instead of producing 11.0 mb/d from the six fields listed in the table above by 2020, Iraq has to settle for only 7.2 mb/d. And even this target looks overly optimistic. To achieve it, Iraq has to be more stable and efficient in the next six years than it has been in the last fi The production loss is even bigger if we include the fields of Qayara and Nejma, which were projected to add 230 kb/d by 2020. Sonangol, the Angolan company which had won the contract to develop them, pulled out of the country in February due to deteriorating security situation. The fields are now under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, and there is little hope for production growth from either of Finally, while BP/CNPC were not alone in negotiating a revised production target, the agreement unusually included raising their shares in Rumaila. BP’s share increased to 47.6% and CNPC’s to 46.4%, while Iraq’s stake was reduced to 6%. Iraq had previously maintained a 25% share in all oil fields, and it is not clear whether this reduction is unique to the BP/CNPC agreement or if it also applies to the other revised deals. Iraq might be moving from propaganda closer to reality, but transparency is still in short supply. ====== Iraq makes landmark payment to IOC Iraq makes landmark payment to IOC Michael Townshend (L), president of BP Iraq, walks with an official of Iraq's South Oil Company at the Rumaila oil field in Basra province on May 24, 2010. (ATEF HASSAN/Reuters) By Ben Lando of Iraq Oil Report Published Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 BP has lifted a 2-million-barrel tanker of oil as payment for its work in the massive Rumaila oil field, the first payout to any of the international oil companies (IOCs) contracted to make Iraq the biggest producer ever. IOCs and investors have paid close attention to the Rumaila project, the most advanced of Iraq’s new oil deals, as a leading indicator of how foreign companies might fare in the country’s oil sector. The payment is a promising achievement for a project that has faced man... ==== Q&A: Falah Mustafa Bakir Q&A: Falah Mustafa Bakir Falah Bakir Mustafa, Head of the Kurdistan region's Department of Foreign Relations. (Photo credit: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office) As Iraq's central government falters under an onslaught of insurgents, the Kurdistan region appears to be moving swiftly toward independence.Kurdish Peshmerga forces have pushed to the edges of nearly all of the territory that has been disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad over the past 11 years. Kurdish leaders say they are not going to be drawn back.The KRG now has a tighter grip on territory it had already contracted for oil development – such as with ... = Department of State @StateDept · 45m This morning, @JohnKerry met with Dr. Fuad Hussein, Chief of Staff to Presidency of Kurdistan Regional Government. ==== Sunnis, Kurds shun Iraq parliament Tue, Jul 01 17:09 PM EDT image 1 of 5 By Raheem Salman and Oliver Holmes BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sunnis and Kurds walked out of the first session of Iraq's new parliament on Tuesday after Shi'ites failed to name a prime minister to replace Nuri al-Maliki, dimming any prospect of an early national unity government to save Iraq from collapse. The United States, United Nations, Iran and Iraq's own Shi'ite clergy have pushed hard for politicians to come up with an inclusive government to hold the fragmenting country together as Sunni insurgents bear down on Baghdad. The leader of the al Qaeda offshoot spearheading the insurgency, the Islamic State, has declared a "caliphate" in the lands it has seized in Iraq and Syria. Its leader vowed on Tuesday to avenge what he said were wrongs committed against Muslims worldwide. Despite the urgency, the Iraqi parliament's first session since its election in April collapsed when Sunnis and Kurds refused to return from a recess to the parliamentary chamber after Shi'ites failed to name a prime minister. Parliament is not likely to meet again for at least a week, leaving Iraq in political limbo and Maliki clinging to power as a caretaker, rejected by Sunnis and Kurds. Under a governing system put in place after the removal of Saddam Hussein, the prime minister has always been a member of the Shi'ite majority, the speaker of parliament a Sunni and the largely ceremonial president a Kurd. The Shi'ite bloc known as the National Alliance, in which Maliki's State of Law coalition is the biggest group, has met repeatedly in recent days to bargain over the premiership but has so far been unable either to endorse Maliki for a third term or to name an alternative. Fewer than a third of lawmakers returned from the recess. Sunni parties said they would not put forward their candidate for speaker until the Shi'ites pick a premier. The Kurds have also yet to nominate a president. Osama al-Nujaifi, a leading Sunni politician, former speaker and strong foe of Maliki, warned that "without a political solution, the sound of weapons will be loud, and the country will enter a black tunnel". He said his bloc did not have a candidate for a speaker so far and was waiting to see who the National Alliance would nominate for prime minister. "If there is a new policy with a new prime minister, we will deal with them positively. Otherwise the country will go from bad to worse," Nujaifi said. Shi'ite lawmakers sought to shift blame to the Sunni and Kurdish blocs, saying the premiership was the last position to be named in the constitutionally-defined process. Mehdi al-Hafidh, parliament's oldest member who is tasked by the constitution with chairing the legislature's meetings until a speaker is named, said the next session would be held in a week, if agreement was possible after discussions. FIGHTING RAGES Baghdad can ill-afford further delays. Government troops have been battling for three weeks against fighters led by the group formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This week it shortened its name to the Islamic State and declared its leader "caliph" - historic title of successors of the Prophet Mohammad who ruled the whole Muslim world. Speaking for the first time since then, the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi vowed revenge for what he said were wrongs committed against Muslims, calling on fighters to avenge them "Your brothers, on every piece of this earth, are waiting for your rescue," Baghdadi purportedly said in an audio message that was posted online, naming a string of countries from Central African Republic to Burma where he said violations were being committed against Muslims. "By Allah, we will take revenge, by Allah we will take revenge, even if after a while," he said in the Ramadan message. Baghdadi also called on Muslims to immigrate to the "Islamic State", saying it was a duty. Fighting has raged in recent days near former dictator Saddam Hussein's home city, Tikrit, north of Baghdad. ISIL also controls suburbs just west of the capital and clashes have erupted to the south, leaving the city of 7 million confronting threats from three sides. The United Nations said on Tuesday more than 2,400 Iraqis had been killed in June alone, making the month by far the deadliest since the height of sectarian warfare during the U.S. "surge" offensive in 2007. In a reminder of that conflict, mortars fell near a Shi'ite holy shrine in Samarra which was bombed in 2006, unleashing the sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands over the next two years. Samarra, north of Baghdad, is now held by Baghdad's troops with ISIL in the surrounding countryside. Violence also struck the capital, where police found two bodies with their hands tied behind their back and bullet wounds in the head and chest in the mainly Shi'ite neighborhood of Shula, police and medical sources said. A bomb went off in Baghdad's western Jihad district, killing two passersby and wounding six more, police and medics said. The insurgents' advance has triggered pledges of support for Baghdad from both Washington and Tehran. On Tuesday, Iran's deputy foreign minister said his country had not received any request for weapons from Baghdad but was ready to supply them if asked. Iraq also flew Russian-made Sukhoi Su-25 jets delivered on Saturday for the first time, state television reported, although there was no independent confirmation. Saudi Arabia pledge $500 million in humanitarian aid for Iraqis to be disbursed through U.N. agencies, a Saudi Press Agency statement said. SHOUTING MATCH Parliament opened its first session with an orchestra playing the national anthem and the recitation of a Quranic verse emphasizing unity. Hafidh called on lawmakers to confront the crisis. "The security setback that has beset Iraq must be brought to a stop, and security and stability have to be regained all over Iraq, so that it can head down the path in the right way toward the future," he said. Lawmakers stood at the arrival of Maliki, who waved to his long-time foe Nujaifi and shook hands with Saleh al-Mutlaq, another leading Sunni politician. But anger among the three main ethnic and sectarian groups soon flared when a Kurdish lawmaker accused the government of withholding salaries for the Kurds' autonomous region. Kadhim al-Sayadi, a lawmaker in Maliki's list, shouted back that Kurds were taking down Iraqi flags.
"The Iraqi flag is an honor above your head. Why do you take it down?" he shouted. "The day will come when we will crush your heads."The dramatic advance by ISIL, which has dominated swathes of territory in an arc from Aleppo in Syria to near the western edge of Baghdad in Iraq, has stunned Iraq and the West. The group and allied militants seized border posts, oilfields and northern Iraq's main northern city Mosul in a lightning offensive in June. Other Iraqi Sunni armed groups which resent what they see as persecution under Maliki are backing the insurgency. Kurds have taken advantage of the advance to seize territory, including the city of Kirkuk, which they see as their historic capital and which sits above huge oil deposits. Results of April's elections initially suggested parliament would easily confirm Maliki in power for a third term. But with lawmakers taking their seats after the collapse of the army in the north, politicians face a more fundamental task of staving off a breakup of the state. Maliki's foes blame him for the rapid advance of the Sunni insurgents. Although Maliki's State of Law coalition won the most seats, it still needs allies to govern. Sunnis and Kurds demand that he go, arguing he favors his own sect, inflaming the resentment that fuels the insurgency. The United States has not publicly called for Maliki to leave power but has demanded a more inclusive government in Baghdad as the price for more aggressive help. DEADLINE PASSES Washington has so far pledged 300 mainly special forces advisers and said on Monday it was sending a further 300 troops to help secure the embassy and Baghdad airport. Maliki's government, with the help of Shi'ite sectarian militias, has managed to stop the militants short of the capital but has been unable to take back cities its forces abandoned. The army attempted last week to take back Tikrit but could not recapture the city, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, where ISIL fighters had machine-gunned scores of soldiers in shallow graves after capturing it on June 12. Residents said fighting raged on the city's southern outskirts on Monday. On Friday, in an unusual political intervention, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, called on political blocs to name the prime minister, president and speaker before parliament met on Tuesday. Now that deadline has passed, a prominent Shi'ite lawmaker told Reuters he expected Sistani to keep up the pressure. Maliki's close friends say he does not want to relinquish power, although senior members of his State of Law coalition have told Reuters an alternative premier from within his party was being discussed. Rival Shi'ite groups also have candidates. Many worry that a drawn-out process will waste precious time in confronting the militants, who have vowed to advance on Baghdad. A Shi'ite lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Things are bad. The political process is not commensurate with the speed of military developments." (Additional reporting by Isra' al-Rubei'i, Ahmed Rasheed, Ned Parker and Alexander Dziadosz in Baghdad and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow and Yara Bayoumy in Dubai; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Peter Graff, Paul Taylor and Anna Willard) #هام:نص فتوى السيد السيستاني(دام ظله) بخصوص الصيام لمن هم في ساحات الجهاد (الرجاء نشرها لتصل الى أخوانكم المقصودين منها). صوم المجاهدين في فتوى السيد السيستاني دام ظله إلى أبنائنا المجاهدين في ساحات الجهاد، تحية إكبار طيّبة وبعد: مراعاة لوضعكم ومعاناتكم في مواجهة صعوبة الصوم مع شدّة الحرارة وثقل السلاح، تم إرسال الإستفتاء التالي لمكتب المرجعية الدينية العليا في النجف الأشرف المتمثلة بسماحة المرجع الديني الأعلى السيد السيستاني دام ظله: نص الإستفتاء: سماحة المرجع الديني الأعلى الإمام السيد السيستاني دامت بركاتكم السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته بالنسبة لإخواننا المجاهدين في الجيش العراقي الباسل تمرّ عليهم في أيام رمضان المبارك مع الصوم الواجب شدّة من الحرِّ والتعب الذي يبلغ إلى الحرج أو الضعف الشديد ـ على الأقل ـ في مواجهة العدو فبعضهم على سفر ولم تتحقق عندهم نيّة الإقامة في مكان ما وهم من سقط عنهم وجوب الصوم لقوله تعالى: فمن كان منكم مريضا أو على سفر فعدة من أيام أُخر... وبعضهم في الحضر يقاتلون في مُدنهم ومناطقهم وهم ممن يُصلّون صلاة كاملة تامّة. والسؤال هو: ما هو حكم صوم المجاهدين في الجيش العراقي مع فرض الإحتياج لوجودهم في صفوف جيشنا الباسل إذا ما كانوا في الحضر ويُصيبهم الحرج أو الضعف الشديد بسبب العطش الشديد وثقل السلاح والحديد، فهل يسقط عنهم الصوم مع وجود الحاجة لهم في ساحات الجهاد؟ هذا ونسأل الله سبحانه أن يمنّ على عراقنا العزيز بالسلامة والأمن وأن يُفرّج عن إخوتنا المجاهدين وينصرهم بنصره الذي وعد المؤمنين به، وأن يُطيل في عُمر مرجعنا الأعلى الإمام السيد السيستاني دام ظله إنه نعم المجيب. والسلام عليكم وعلى عباد الله الصالحين ورحمة الله وبركاته جمع من طلبة الحوزة العلمية ـ مشهد المقدّسة نــــص الجـــواب: باسمه تعالى لا يختلفون عن غيرهم فإن كانوا على سفر فلا يصح منهم الصوم. وإذا اشتد عليهم العطش والضعف بحيث لم يتمكنوا من الإستمرار في أداء الواجب جــــــاز لـهــم الإفطــار بمقــدار الضــرورة ويقضــونه بعــد ذلــك. ودمتم موفقين www.sistani.org مكتب السيد السيستاني (دام ظله) - قسم الاستفتاءات الرجاء نشر الإستفتاء ليصل إلى إخواننا المؤمنين في ساحات القتال ليعلموا حكمهم في جواز تناول المفطر ـ طعام أو شراب ـ بما تقتضيه الحاجة والضرورة. والله المسدد للصواب. ملتقى البشائر ..http://bashaer.iq/permalink/4770.html # Important: Sistani fatwa (bloody shadow) regarding fasting in arenas of Jihad (please post them to your intended them). Fasting in Sistani's opinion as the canopy to our Mujahideen in the arenas of Jihad, a tribute and after: taking into account your situation and your suffering in the face of difficult fasting with the heat and the weight of the weapon, the referendum has been sent to the Office of Supreme religious reference in Najaf of the Supreme religious authority by allowing Mr. Sistani as the marquee: the text of the referendum: the Supreme religious authority Imam eminence Sistani as your blessings peace, mercy and blessings of God for our brothers in the Iraqi army with their valiant in the days of Ramadan with Fasting must be free of fatigue which amounts to embarrassed or at least very weak in the face of the enemy, some travel and not have the intention to stay somewhere they fell their obligation of fasting for meaning: whoever of you is sick or on a journey, several of the latest ... And some in urban fighting in their cities and regions, who will complete the full prayer. The question is: what is the ruling on the fasting of the Mujahideen in Iraq with army imposing a requirement for being in the ranks of the valiant army if they were urban and be embarrassed or very weak because of the extreme thirst and heavy arms, iron, do their fasting falls with a need for them in the arenas of Jihad? This we ask God Almighty to bless the iraqna Aziz of safety and security and to release our brothers and help them by the believers, and to prolong the lifetime of our reference top Imam Sistani long canopy that yes the respondent. Peace be upon you and Allah's righteous and God's mercy and blessings collection of Hawza scene holy text of the answer: his name exalted are no different from others that were on travel is not valid them fast. If they increased thirst and so weak that they could not continue on duty c BL for the breakfast or by necessary and otherwise discolors subsequently. And may you always be conciliators www.sistani.org Sistani's Office (as shadow)-referendum referendums section please post to our faithful in the battlefields to teach in that consumes something to eat or drink as needed and necessary. God paid for the right. Bashayer. Forum.http://bashaer.iq/permalink/4770.html =============================================== The New Iraqi Parliament Opens Posted by Reidar Visser on Tuesday, 1 July 2014 20:39 So the new Iraqi parliament met today after having promised Iraqi voters, the Shiite religious authorities, and the international community that they would do so. Unsurprisingly, they did little else than meet. Following the inaugural formalities, Mahdi al-Hafez, the “speaker of age”(the oldest MP who chairs the first session), introduced the only point of substance on the agenda: The election of a parliament speaker and his two deputies. At that point, a Kurdish MP found the time had come to complain about the refusal of Baghdad to compromise on the KRG share of the budget. This rather blunt violation of the official agenda prompted heckling and even blunter derogatory verbal counter attacks. Speaker Hafez, who represents the small and secular Iraqi coalition with both Sunni and Shiite members, proposed a half-hour break to calm tensions and explore the opportunities for electing a speaker. When the session resumed, many of the 255 deputies that had been present at the outset failed to show up. It was suggested that there was no longer a quorum (165 MPs); indeed some reports suggested the number of deputies present had fallen as low as 70-100. What apparently had happened was that Kurds and Sunni Arabs deliberately boycotted – the Kurds probably to some extent offended by the verbal altercation about its attempt to put budget issues on the agenda, but also with suggestions that both protested what they saw as a failure by the Shia alliance to come up with a replacement candidate for Nuri al-Maliki as premier. What was clear, at any rate, was that there was no speaker candidate. Accordingly, there wasn’t much to do except agree the next session, and it fell to the mainly Shiite Islamist MPs that remained in the session to work this out together with Hafez, the temporary speaker. To Hafez’s credit, he did not go along with suggestions by Ibrahim al-Jaafari that this could wait until after Ramadan. Instead, another meeting next Tuesday, 8 July, was fixed. A couple of comments on the constitutional and legal aspects of this. Firstly, there has been much talk about the ability of the Iraqi supreme court to speed up the government formation process, based on its intervention back in 2010. Sadly, though, the ability of the court to do much in practice is probably limited. In 2010, its ruling against parliament was focused on its open-ended and everlasting (jalsa maftuha) session. Iraqi politicians have found an easy solution to this by simply ending today’s session without results and then calling a new one. The truth is, the supreme court cannot force Iraqi parliamentarians to remain within the parliament building until they find a solution, papal conclave-style. What actually happened in 2010 was not that the court suddenly became extremely powerful, but that its ruling coincided with the first real signs of progress on the political front after the Sadrists agreed to a second Maliki term. Second, it should be stressed that constitutionally speaking, the only thing the Iraqi parliament needs to agree on at its first meeting is the speaker. The practice of agreeing on all three top positions – i.e. speaker, president and premier – is not rooted in the constitution. Rather, it is a tradition that has come into use on two previous occasions in 2010 and 2006. Sunnis and Kurds who are using this precedent to force the Shiite alliance to come up with a replacement of Maliki should be aware of this aspect, since for the first time the Shiites in the new parliament hold the numbers (170 plus) to proceed with elections of a speaker to suit their own interests even if the main Sunni and Kurdish parties continue to boycott. (It should be noted, though, that the debate about quorum or no quorum is immaterial to the speakership vote, which explicitly demands an absolute majority to be valid in any case per the Iraqi constitution.) This point is also important because there seems to be a gross disconnect between the actual Iraqi political process and the media description of it. Consider, once more, the move to squeeze out Maliki, which is seen as a foregone conclusion in all Western and most Arab media. Compare it with the composition of the last key Shia alliance meeting on the subject on Monday, where those present consisted of 6 potential Maliki loyalists (Maliki himself plus Khudayr al-Khuzaie, Hadi al-Ameri, Hashem al-Hashemi, Faleh al-Fayyad and Ibrahim al-Jaafari) whereas only 2 (Ammar al-Hakim and Karar al-Khafaji) are known to be wholeheartedly against a third term. With a situation like that, a more realistic interpretation is that the tug-of-war inside the Shiite alliance may take rather longer than some on the outside seem ready to admit. ===========================================================
