Maliki is still trying to get his foot in the door

Iraq's former leader still looms large months after his ouster

By Loveday Morris,Liz Sly March 31 at 5:15 AM 

BAGHDAD – Inside the walls of his shaded villa in the heart of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone,Nouri al-Maliki still greets his visitors in the same marble floored office where he worked for eight years as prime minister.

As one of the country’s three vice presidents, he now holds a largely ceremonial position, in the government of his successor, Haidar al-Abadi.

But whether Maliki has given up his quest for power is increasingly in question as he sets about a series of widely publicized battlefield tours, meetings with tribal elders and visits abroad.

In an interview at his Green Zone villa, he denied seeking to reclaim his former position, and pledged support for Abadi, who six months into the job is attempting to quell the chaos convulsing Iraq. Maliki has been widely blamed for much of it, with his failure to reach out to Sunnis and policies widely seen as sectarian.

But he does not rule out that he could one day return.

“Based on my popular support base, which still exists and is strong, it's possible,” he said, indicating that he is setting his sights on Iraq’s next election, due in 2018.

“Legally and constitutionally, it's possible,” he said. “But it’s the Iraqi people’s choice.”

Maliki's looming presence presents a continued challenge for Abadi as he attempts to win back ground from the extremists and repair rifts with Iraq's Sunnis and Kurds. Meanwhile, an offensive to retake Tikrit has highlighted the premier's lack of control over the array of Shiite volunteers and militias that are leading it.

“He still has a role and he’s not finished,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a parliamentarian with Maliki's state of law bloc. “We haven’t seen the end of Maliki.”

A Western diplomat based in the region said there are deep concerns about what Maliki may be up to, with no doubt that he is trying to undermine Abadi. “He’s irredeemable,” he said.

Maliki appears to wield influence over more members of parliament than Abadi, with more support in the security institutions, he said. However, others doubt his reach, contending he has little chance of a comeback.

On a March trip to a recently cleared town near Tikrit to meet fighters who had driven out Islamic State militants, Maliki greeted the forces as if he were still in power. He said it’s natural that some security forces would feel a sense of loyalty to him. 

Since leaving power, he has become a particular champion of the legions of largely Shiite volunteers and militias known as the “popular mobilizations” – many of whom answered a call from Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric to sign up to fight.

“I established it in my time,” he says of the volunteer force that mustered in the dying days of Maliki’s leadership and has led the battle in the city of Tikrit. “And they feel very close to me, or may be loyal to me. Therefore I keep working with them and supporting them and pushing them to fight.”

Maliki is senior to Abadi in their party, Dawa, holding the title of secretary general of the party. Some Dawa members mockingly refer to Abadi as “the traffic warden,” a reference to the fact that although he nominally runs the government, his actual power is in question.

Though they hail from the same party, the two men have drastically different ruling styles – perhaps rooted in their disparate experiences of exile during the rule of Saddam Hussein. While Abadi, an English-speaker who worked as an electrical engineer in Britain, is seen as cozy with the West, Maliki whose U.S. backing fell away in the final years of his rule, is closer to Iran, where he lived for seven years.

On billboards around Baghdad, Maliki’s pictures still loom large. Abadi, in contrast, has ordered that no posters of him be displayed, in an attempt to break with the country’s tradition of leaders with personality cults.

When Maliki ventures from the Green Zone, he does so in a big convoy of armored SUVs. Abadi won plaudits for publicly visiting a shrine in Baghdad accompanied by only twobodyguards. While Abadi shuns honorifics, Maliki has dubbed himself “first vice president” – though in the past there’s been no differentiation between the three.

Their rivalry is thinly veiled.

“What he’s doing is what’s possible — not the ambition that is required, but what’s possible,” Maliki said pointedly of Abadi’s progress, though he added that his successor is constrained by the country’s shaky finances and fragile security.

He is quick to point out what he sees as flaws in his Abadi’s policies. The much lauded oil export deal with the Kurds – heralded as a sign that the new prime minister was capable of papering over the rifts that divided the country under Maliki — is unconstitutional, he claims, as it allows for Erbil to export some oil independently.

On the proposal for a national guard, a new system of localized security forces that is a cornerstone of Abadi’s security policy: “I’m the one who suggested it, but not in the way it has developed recently. It’s become a danger to national unity,” Maliki said.

The competition has sparked rumors of splits within the Dawa party.

“There are people close to Nouri al-Maliki who are trying to make some problems, talking against Haider al-Abaidi,” concedes Ali Alaq, a senior Dawa member, though he dismisses the notion that there’s any rift. “Nouri al-Maliki says he has nothing to do with them,” he adds.

In his home in the upscale Baghdad neighborhood of Mansoor, Saad al-Muttalibi, is one of Maliki’s allies who is less than flattering of the new leader, despite claiming that Abadi is an old friend.

“Mr. Abadi isn’t as hands-on as Maliki,” said the Baghdad provincial council member, a picture of the former leader hanging on the wall behind him. “I don’t know if he’s trying to show himself as a technocrat, or if it’s just inability.” He describes Abadi as “indecisive” and gibes that he has put on weight – stress eating that indicates he can’t deal with the pressure. Parliamentarians are rallying to support Maliki, he said.

Known for his unrelenting work ethic, Maliki has kept up a hectic schedule since leaving power.

When Abadi made his first visit to Iran last year, Maliki followed a few weeks later, also meeting with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Maliki said that Iraq's relationships with Iran and the United States were once “balanced” — but that had shifted since the United States failed to fulfil its security agreement with Baghdad, he claimed, refering to the deal signed by the Bush administration which the United States committed itself to defend Iraq’s democracy and territorial integrity.

“America has not provided anything for us,” he said.“We have an agreement and we asked them, we asked them to bomb with their planes, we asked for more weapons from them to face the developed weapons that [Islamic State] has, but we don’t know why they didn’t respond.” 

U.S. officials have justified their decision to condition air strikes on Maliki’s departure by saying a new leader was essential if Iraq was to overcome the sectarianism that had fueled the Islamic State’s rise.

Maliki still claims that the decision to nominate Abadi to form a government last summer was “illegal” after he won the highest proportion of votes.

“All the laws and procedures indicated that Al-Maliki should have a third term,” said Maliki, who has a habit of referring to himself in the third person. However, he claims that the issue is behind him now. “Today we have to cooperate in the process of building the country and facing the challenges,” he said. “Therefore I’m keen for this government to succeed.”

That feeling of betrayal may be spurring him to launch a comeback however, and with Iran playing a powerful role in Iraq, it's Maliki who stands to gain.

Abadi is not a natural ally of Iran, which initially blocked his nomination for the premiership in a country where Tehran wield's significant influence over the politics of its neighbor. Tehran only relented at the eleventh hour, as Iraq was on the brink of collapse.

Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni parliamentarian and member of parliament's defense and security committee claimed that Iran is now trying to undermine Abadi, who has U.S. support.

“Iran has a lot of power in Iraq," he said. “They make problems when someone is not obeying them, and one of their soldiers is Maliki.”

Whether he can in fact make a comeback is an intense subject of speculation.

Izzat Shahbandar, a former MP with Maliki’s State of Law coalition, said whether he likes it or not, Maliki is finished.

“He had a big failure in administering the country,” said Shahbandar, who remains friends with Maliki, meeting him last month at his home. “There is no Iraqi power, Sunni, Shia or anyone else who will support him."

Asked why it is, therefore, that Maliki believes he can make a comeback, he chuckled:
“Saddam Hussein is dead and even he believes he can make a comeback.”
“This is what power does to you,” he added. 

Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

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Maliki dreamed of returning to the presidency of the government depended on Iran and its proximity to some of the militias, the popular crowd

Erbil, April 1 / Oپrیl (PNA) - still Nuri al-Maliki welcomed his visitors in the same office with a marble floor inside the shaded villa in the heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, as he did for 8 years as prime minister of the country. 
 
Maliki currently maintained, as one of three deputies to the Iraqi president-elect, the post is largely ceremonial in the government of his successor, Haider al-Abadi. But do you really abandoned his quest for Maliki strenuously behind the power? The matter is still under question as increasingly out in a series of field trips declared the meet with tribal leaders and travels in foreign visits.
 
Maliki denied during an interview at his headquarters in the Green Zone quest to regain his former position, and pledged to support and the support of al-Abadi, who passed him 6 months so far in office, trying to quell the chaos that hit Iraq. Maliki received much of the blame about that mess, in terms of failing to communicate with the year and apply to policies described widely as fuel sectarianism in the country.
 
Maliki, however, does not rule out returning to the previous position in the day, al-Maliki said «Based on the popular support that I enjoy doing is still strong, I think that this is possible», pointing out that he focused his eyes on the next parliamentary elections in 2018. He said al-Maliki saying: «it possible legal and constitutional terms. But the selection of the Iraqi people at the end of it. »
 
The presence of al-Maliki in the Iraqi scene events ongoing challenge to Ebadi, who is trying to regain the occupied territories of the extremists and heal the rift with Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Maliki seems like exercise a degree of influence on a lot of members of Parliament more than Abadi himself, with more support for the owners in the state security services, he said. However, others question the extent of that influence, considering that his chance to return to the top of the events are very slim.
Maliki,) received in a recent trip in March (March to the city was liberated near Tikrit, Shiite fighters (PDF crowd) who were able to expel the organization Daash fighters, as if he was still in his former position. He said he «is normal to feel some of the security forces loyal to him», adding that «these militias have established whenever you are in power. The relationship with them very closely, and may be on the same dedication to me. And therefore I still work with them and support them and encourage them to fight. »
 
Maliki occupies a greater degree of al-Abadi within the Dawa Party, which belonged to him as al-Maliki holds the post of Secretary General of the Party. And suggests some of the members of the Dawa Party, mockingly, to Abadi as «Traffic cop», in reference to the fact that in spite of his ascension to the top of the pyramid of government in the country, but his grip on power is still highly questionable.
 
Although the two men out from under the cloak of a party, they differ in the very style of governance and administration, which may originate in disparate experiences in exile during the years of Saddam Hussein's rule. While al-Abadi, who speaks Anglo fluently and was employed electrical engineer in Britain, is one of those quiet relations with the West, the al-Maliki, who collapsed US support has rapidly during the last years of his reign, has close ties with Iran where he lived for several years.
 
Nor al-Maliki big picture still scattered all over Baghdad. The Abadi, on the contrary, it has been ordered not to publish any pictures of him in any place, in an attempt to break the Iraqi tradition about the fawning adulation and the ruling of the characters.
 
When al-Maliki to leave the Green Zone, it comes out in a large convoy of armored SUV. The Abadi has won plaudits when he visited a holy shrines in Baghdad accompanied by two bodyguards only. While Abadi avoids public ceremonies, Maliki took for himself the name «First Deputy President of the Republic», whereas before there was no difference between the three deputies to the country's president.
Commenting on the record of the Abadi, al-Maliki said that «what he does lies in the limits of the possible, not ambition is required, just a possible», but he acknowledged that his successor sits under considerable financial constraints and security situation of the country's fragile prevail.
 
Maliki was quick to point out what he considers such as defects in the Abadi policies. Since the oil deal with Kurds, which won a lot of Tribute - which has been described as a sign of the ability of the new Prime Minister to overcome differences that have torn the country under the rule of al-Maliki - is unconstitutional deal, as alleged al-Maliki, as it allows for Arbil to export some of Iraq's oil is independently.
 
The National Guard is the cornerstone of the project Abadi security policy, al-Maliki said «I suggested it, but not in the way it goes things recently. We have become a threat to national unity. »
 
When Abadi visited Iran for the first time last year, al-Maliki was followed by a visit to it after a few weeks, as well as encountering the Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
 
Maliki still argue that the decision to Abadi's nomination to head the government last summer was a decision «illegal» after winning the highest proportion of the number of votes. Maliki said: «all laws and procedures confirmed that al-Maliki deserves third term». However, it is alleged that the whole issue behind his back now. The «Today we cooperate together in the process of building the country and meet the challenges, and I am therefore keen on the success of the current government».
 
But this feeling of betrayal has stimulated planning to return and with the strong role that Iran plays in Iraq, al-Maliki is expected to reap gains. Valebadi of natural allies of Iran, which tried to prevent his candidacy for prime minister in the country which is subject to political influence broad. However, Tehran relented in the end when Iraq is on the brink of collapse.
 
Service: «Washington پost», the newspaper «Middle East»


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