(AFP) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to end all US support for Iraq if Nouri al-Maliki, a former prime minister with ties to Iran, returns to the post. Trump, in his latest blatant intervention in another country’s politics, said that Iraq would make a “very bad choice” with Maliki, who has been nominated as prime minister by the largest Shiite bloc.
“Last time Maliki was in power, the country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Because of his insane policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq,” he said. “If we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom. MAKE IRAQ GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote, adopting his slogan at home.
Maliki left power in 2014 following pressure from the United States, which blamed his nakedly sectarian Shiite agenda for giving rise to the Islamic State group of ultra-violent Sunni extremists. The United States wields key leverage over Iraq as its oil export revenue is largely held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, in an arrangement reached after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Oil sales account for around 90 percent of Iraqi government revenues.
Trump’s statement came days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced similar concerns in a telephone call with the incumbent prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The United States had also sent a letter to Iraqi politicians saying that Washington views Maliki negatively, political sources said.
By convention, a Shiite Muslim has been prime minister since the fall of Saddam, who ruthlessly repressed the Shiite majority in Iraq. On Saturday, the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shiite parties with varying ties to Iran that holds a parliamentary majority, endorsed Maliki. Normally he would then be nominated by the president, who holds a largely ceremonial role.
Iraq’s parliament was set to elect a president on Tuesday, but the vote was abruptly delayed. The presidency traditionally goes to a Kurd, and the official INA press agency said that the two main Kurdish parties had requested more time to come to a consensus on a candidate. Before Trump’s open call to dump Maliki, an Iraqi political source said that the Coordination Framework was set on moving forward with the nomination, believing that Maliki could eventually allay Washington’s concerns.
A pro-Iranian government in Iraq would be a rare boon for Tehran’s Shiite clerical state after it suffered major setbacks at home and in the region. The Islamic Republic has killed thousands of Iranians since mass protests erupted in late December in one of the largest threats to the clerics’ rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since suffering the October 7, 2023, attacks, Israel has hit Iran both with strikes inside the country and heavy blows against Tehran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, while Iran lost its main Arab ally with the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
The United States has enjoyed smooth relations with Sudani, who has worked quietly to prevent violence by Iraqi Shiite armed groups tied to Iran. Sudani has also cooperated with the United States to bring into Iraq a caravan of Islamic State prisoners from Syria, where the army recently moved on Kurdish fighters who had run the detention camps.
Even during Sudani’s term, Maliki annoyed the then US administration of Joe Biden by helping push through a harsh anti-LGBTQ law. The United States has long intervened in other countries, but Trump has broken precedent by meddling openly. Trump has backed fellow right-wing candidates in elections in Poland, Romania, and Honduras, where the Trump-backed winner was inaugurated Tuesday. Trump earlier this month ordered a deadly military operation into Venezuela that removed leftist president Nicolas Maduro, a longtime US nemesis.
burs-sct/dw – Shaun TANDON
© 2024 AFP
