Maliki says he’ll step down in Iraq, easing fears of violent transition By Adam Ashton
McClatchy Foreign Staff
August 14, 2014
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BAGHDAD — Bowing to calls for his resignation from Iraq’s most revered cleric and his own party, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Thursday backed off his threat to fight the nomination of his successor and announced that he would step down from the post he has held for the past eight years.
In a recorded speech to be broadcast on Iraqi TV, Maliki said he’d support the nomination of his “brother,” Haider al Abadi, according to an excerpt released by Shiite political bloc before his remarks appeared on television.
He planned to announce that he would drop a legal complaint he filed against Iraqi President Fuoad Massoum earlier this week challenging Abadi’s appointment.
Maliki spokesman Ali al Mawlawi confirmed Maliki would step down in the interest of “serving Iraq and announcing, withdrawing the (legal) complaint and supporting the assigned nominee of the office of prime minister.”
Maliki’s departure from office was the second major piece of good news for the Obama administration on Thursday. Earlier in the day, President Barack Obama had declared that the U.S. had succeeded in preventing the Islamic State from slaughtering members of the Yazidi religious minority who’d fled Islamic State forces after the capture of the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar.
U.S. officials have been pressing for Maliki to step down since insurgents from the Islamic State captured the city of Mosul June 10 and began a seemingly unstoppable push toward Baghdad. Administration officials said they would not agree to a broad-based program to assist in reversing Islamic State gains until a more inclusive government was in place
Maliki’s announcement capped a seesaw week of political intrigue in which Maliki gave two defiant speeches vowing to fight Abadi’s nomination and consolidated a cadre of elite troops around the central Baghdad government complex known as the International Zone.
Massoum announced Abadi’s appointment on Monday, drawing endorsements from the U.S., Iran, Shi’a militias that have fought with Maliki in the past and most of Iraq’s major political parties.
By the end of the week, Maliki had few allies left for his fight. His own Dawa Party, of which Abadi is also a member, officially endorsed Abadi. Its members cited a July letter they received from revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani that urged them to choose a new prime minister “that enjoys wide national acceptance and who can work together with the political leadership of other parties to save the country from the risks of terror, sectarianism and division.”
Ashton reports for The News Tribune in Tacoma Washington. Email: adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com, Twitter: @tntmilitary
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