IraqMaliki says he will not step down to facilitate U.S. air strikes against ISIS
A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said Maliki will not stand down in order to make it politically easier for the United States to launch air strikes against ISIS Sunni militants who have made rapid advances across Iraq, culminating yesterday (Wednesday) with taking control over Iraq’s largest oil refinery, located in Baiji, 130 miles north of Baghdad. The Islamists now control a third of Iraq’s territory. Many U.S. lawmakers, and many analysts of Iraq, consider the failed leadership Maliki — a Shi’a politician who, at Iran’s urging, has pursued a narrow sectarian policies which has alienated Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds — as the reason for the willingness of the Sunni population in Iraq to welcome ISIS as a protector of Sunni interests, and the indifference shown so far by the Kurds in the face of ISIS gains.
A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said Maliki will not stand down in order to make it politically easier for the United States to launch air strikes against ISIS Sunni militants who have made rapid advances across Iraq, culminating yesterday (Wednesday) with taking control over Iraq’s largest oil refinery, located in Baiji, 130 miles north of Baghdad.
The Islamists now control a third of Iraq’s territory.
Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, speaking on al-Arabiya television on Wednesday, publicly called for the United States to launch strikes against the insurgents, but senior U.S. lawmakers have pressured President Barack Obama to persuade Maliki — a Shi’a politician who, at Iran’s urging, has pursued a narrow sectarian policies which has alienated Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds — to step down as a condition for U.S. military involvement. Many U.S. lawmakers, and many analysts of Iraq, consider Maliki’s failed leadership as the reason for the willingness of the Sunni population in Iraq to welcome ISIS as a protector of Sunni interests, and the indifference shown so far by the Kurds in the face of ISIS gains (for the arguments for replacing Maliki, see “If Nouri al-Maliki stays in office, Iraq faces destructive descent into a long civil war,” HSNW, 18 June 2014).
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told a committee hearing yesterday (Wednesday) that Maliki’s government “has got to go if you want any reconciliation,” and Republican John McCain (R-Arizona) called for the use of U.S. air power but also urged Obama to “make very clear to Maliki that his time is up.”
The Guardian reports that the White House has so far not called for Maliki to go, but spokesman Jay Carney said that whether Iraq was led by Maliki or a successor, “We will aggressively attempt to impress upon that leader the absolute necessity of rejecting sectarian governance.” Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was focused on the Iraqi people, not Maliki.
Maliki’s spokesman, Zuhair al-Nahar, said earlier today (Thursday) that the West should immediately support the Iraqi government’s military operation against ISIS rather than demand a change of government. He insisted that Maliki had “never used sectarian tactics.”
“Our focus needs to be on urgent action — air support, logistic support, counter-intelligence support to defeat these terrorists who are posing a real danger to the stability of Iraq, to the whole region,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today program.
Obama is said to be considering military options available to the United States, and U.S. officials have said that a decision is not imminent.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that the United States had received the request from Iraq for air strikes, but said that the fluid state of the Iraqi battlefield had left the United States with incomplete intelligence, a factor that made an air campaign more difficult. “It’s not as easy as looking at an iPhone video of a convoy and then striking it,” he told senators.
