Iraq: Backroom Dealing

Nibras Kazimi of Talisman Gate has heard rumours that a secret deal has been struck between Ayad Allawi and Nadim Al-Jabiri of the Fadhila Party under American auspices. This could move 20 seats from the UIA to Allawi's coalition. The idea being that Allawi can then assemble enough supporters to make him president. More on the backroom dealings here.

2 comments

  • […] For its part, the U.S. has been trying to isolate the Shia Islamist UIA in order to play divide-and-conquer politics in Iraq. The right-wing blogs were busy today with rumors that America has convinced Nadim Al-Jabiri, head of the Shia Islamist Fadhila Party, to quit the UIA and throw in with former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. I find such a possibility extremely remote: for one thing, Fadhila, the Islamic Virtue party, is one of the home-grown parties pressing Shariah law in Basra. Al-Jabiri and the militantly secular Allawi would never get along. Furthermore, nobody’s going to overtly break with Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, who instructed the religious Shia parties not to divide the vote. His endorsement of the UIA wasn’t quite as clear-cut as in the earlier elections, but it was still an endorsement and it still carried his enormous gravitas. […]

  • a. mahdi

    I beg to difer with the 1st comment. Sistani had not supported the UIA in this elections, despite claims otherwise. Nor does Fadhila follow Sistani’s teaching, religeously speaking.

    The big question that is being ignored is: Can Nadim AL-Jabri bring along all the seats of Fadhila Party with him? I think not.

    Regardless, the new government, whomever is the Prime Minister, is going to be short lived. Expect cracks in the lines of all the coalitions, Allawi’s included (possible exception is the Kurdish alliance), with the strain of negotiating “corrections” to the constitution.

    I look forward to a summer full of argumentation in Iraq and I am interested to see the implications on the mid term elections in the US. Moreimportantly, what are implications on security in various towns in Iraq with the central government unable to enforce the law and militias (from all sides) are stronger than the army and the police?

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