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description= 7 posts published by Reidar Visser during March 2011;
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Text of the page (random words):
014 june 2014 may 2014 april 2014 march 2014 february 2014 january 2014 december 2013 november 2013 october 2013 september 2013 august 2013 july 2013 june 2013 may 2013 april 2013 march 2013 february 2013 january 2013 december 2012 november 2012 october 2012 september 2012 august 2012 july 2012 june 2012 may 2012 april 2012 march 2012 february 2012 january 2012 december 2011 november 2011 october 2011 september 2011 august 2011 july 2011 june 2011 may 2011 april 2011 march 2011 february 2011 january 2011 december 2010 november 2010 october 2010 september 2010 august 2010 july 2010 june 2010 may 2010 april 2010 march 2010 february 2010 january 2010 december 2009 november 2009 october 2009 september 2009 august 2009 july 2009 june 2009 may 2009 april 2009 march 2009 february 2009 january 2009 december 2008 november 2008 october 2008 september 2008 august 2008 july 2008 june 2008 may 2008 april 2008 march 2008 february 2008 january 2008 december 2007 november 2007 october 2007 september 2007 august 2007 july 2007 june 2007 may 2007 april 2007 march 2007 february 2007 january 2007 december 2006 november 2006 october 2006 september 2006 august 2006 july 2006 june 2006 may 2006 april 2006 march 2006 february 2006 january 2006 december 2005 november 2005 october 2005 august 2005 categories basra and southern regionalism 34 de baathification 11 federalism in sunni majority areas of iraq 14 federalism in the middle east 6 iranian influence in iraq 55 iraq regionalism general 27 iraq and soft partition 39 iraq international relations 5 iraq local elections 2013 21 iraq parliament membership 13 iraq parliamentary elections 2014 26 iraq s 2010 parliamentary election 175 iraqi constitutional issues 280 iraqi nationalism 95 kirkuk and disputed territories 47 oil in iraq 46 rule of law 2 sectarian master narrative 55 shiite sectarian federalism 16 uia dynamics 133 uncategorized 59 us policy in iraq leverage issues 67 meta create account log in entries feed comments feed wordpress com my latest book on amazon com from just world books available on amazon com twitter updates tweets by reidarvisser march 2011 m t w t f s s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 feb apr subscribe entries rss comments rss recent posts legality and constitutionality questions in iraq s reform push the federalism dimension in yemen s draft constitution federalism and decentralization in libya s constitutional proposals groundbreaking iraq supreme court ruling on the law on mp replacement after the rise of isis will iraq s shiites secede additional ministers approved for the iraq cabinet the controversial kurdish ministers in the new iraqi cabinet the iraqi parliament fails to approve new security ministers the iraqi parliament approves the abbadi cabinet haydar al abbadi is the new iraq pm candidate maliki the presidency and parliament in the iraq pm nomination battle pm nomination trouble in iraq iraq elects fuad masum as new president for the first time in iraq a large field of presidential candidates the iraqi parliament elects its new speakership archive for march 2011 maliki s baathists and faysal al lami towards another confrontation posted by reidar visser on thursday 31 march 2011 19 32 keen watchers of iraqi politics will recall a dramatic headline in al hayat on 24 february 2010 shortly before the 7 march parliamentary elections the head of the de baathification committee ali al lami announced that 376 high ranking officers in the iraqi army were subject to de baathification and should be removed from their posts the list of names included such prominent officers as abbud qanbar and abd al muhsin al kaabi in short these were prime minister nuri al maliki s guys shiites who had worked for saddam hussein and had subsequently been coopted by maliki they were being attacked by a fellow shiite in the de baathification committee with ties to ahmad chalabi one of the most zealous exponents of a hardline de baathification policy flash forward to today s situation and the continuing debate about who should get the security ministries in nuri al maliki s still incomplete second government in the sea of rumours and counter rumours on this issue one particularly interesting item is a report this week that ali al lami is once more attacking maliki and is trying to marginalise some of his candidates for the ministries of defence and interior lami has told an iraqi news agency that proceedings are underway to exclude the top candidate for the defence ministry post khalid al ubaydi for unspecified reasons relating to de baathification he has also added that investigations are ongoing concerning the frontrunner for the interior ministry ibrahim muhammad al lami on the grounds that he had received the quds order for his service for the baathist regime in the late 1990s the rationale for excluding ibrahim al lami seems particularly odd since the relevant legal framework the accountability and justice law of 2008 is strictly based on combinations of rank in the baath party and type of job in the security ministries as a basis for exclusion from all or certain jobs in the state bureaucracy instead and not for the first time lami seems to be creating his own indicators of de baathification without making specific reference to the accountability and justice law beyond the questionable legal basis for the exclusion the case has interesting political ramifications what we are seeing is basically a heated internal shiite struggle about pragmatic versus hardliner approaches in the question of de baathification ali al lami and the candidate he is seeking to exclude ibrahim al lami are not only both shiites they probably both hail from the banu lam tribe of south eastern iraq as for the wider political dimensions it is noteworthy that ahmad chalabi appears to enjoy the support of the sadrists as far as the security ministries are concerned they are interested in letting chalabi himself have that portfolio the issue does not end with the internal shiite struggle maliki s candidate for defence khalid al ubaydi first emerged as an iraqiyya candidate but has since met with opposition from inside iraqiyya in particular from ayyad allawi some say this is because ubaydi is considered too close to another iraqiyya leader usama al nujayfi in other words it appears ubaydi is being favoured by maliki and nujayfi and white iraqiyya and is being opposed by chalabi the sadrists and allawi going forward the fate of these two internal struggles pragmatists versus hardliners on de baathification inside the all shiite national alliance as well as pro maliki nujayfi mutlak eisawi versus anti maliki allawi hashemi inside iraqiyya could have an impact on several momentous issues in iraqi politics including the oil law kirkuk and the question of a renewal of the sofa with the united states indeed it could have an impact on the survival of the second maliki government itself posted in uia dynamics 16 comments complex alliances in babel posted by reidar visser on sunday 27 march 2011 18 02 after the local elections in january 2009 babel was one of the most contested iraqi governorates when it came to agreeing on a new governor after a long stalemate an alliance of state of law the sadrists and iraqiyya decided to sideline isci and formed a coalition with a new governor considered loyal to state of law and prime minister nuri al maliki the babel governor salman al zarkani became one of the casualties of the latest public demonstrations in iraq when he was instructed by maliki to tender his resignation however it seems that maliki and his party subsequently lost control of the battle for the next governor the recently elected new governor muhammad al masudi is thought to be leaning towards isci and other smaller blocs independent of state of law one particularly interesting aspect of developments in babel is the recent selection of a second deputy for the speaker of the council the council speaker kazim majid tuman is a sadrist whereas his first deputy sabah abbud hasan mahdi allawi duly elected in 2009 is from the secular iraqiyya recently however and apparently as part of the deal that led to the election of the new governor a second deputy to the speaker of the council has been elected the new second deputy to the speaker is also from iraqiyya mansur hussein mani hummadi the idea of a second deputy speaker does not have any basis in the law on the powers of the governorates of 2008 in itself it seems to echo an unfortunate tendency in iraqi politics called muhasasa or quota sharing which often leads to an inflation of deputies as new posts are created basically in order to accommodate appointees of the political parties now interestingly this latest creation of a second deputy speaker is being challenged by two parties that appear to be on the defensive in babel maliki s state of law as well as the sadrists who have promised to send the matter to the federal supreme court the court may find it difficult to rule in the matter it has previously said it does not adjudicate disputes that relate to the interpretation of laws in force as such only the constitution and yet on numerous occasions it has in fact used arguments precisely from the law on the powers of the governorates even in cases of constitutional review there are certain parallels to the recent dispute about the number of presidential deputies although in that matter the constitution at least offered some guidance and left the issue as basically a political question as for the political aspect of the new developments one can get the sense that isci and iraqiyya in this case are coming closer together again at the local level but with the sadrists still sticking to their alliance with maliki at the national level things are looking slightly different right now with the sadrists reportedly still supporting ahmad chalabi as new interior minister and with iraqiyya apparently fighting among themselves about who should be the new defence minister after khalid al ubaydi reportedly pro nujayfi was recently dismissed as their candidate and replaced with others fasih al ani and hikmat al jahishi today an agenda for this week s last parliamentary meeting thursday was published once more it fails to include any mention of security ministries if things continue to drag on like this maliki may well end up in a situation where developments in the governorates could ultimately create greater challenges for him at the national level postscript in a breaking news update out of baghdad tonight isci s adil abd al mahdi says he is no longer a candidate for vice president this could further affect the overall political dynamics sketched out above in particular it will be interesting to see how the main candidate to another of the vice presidential positions tariq al hashemi of iraqiyya reacts posted in iraqi constitutional issues uia dynamics 10 comments still no security ministers parliament goes on holiday in solidarity with bahraini demonstrators posted by reidar visser on thursday 17 march 2011 13 42 it was all utterly predictable a reuters journalist wanted to get an eye catching headline and a new angle on the conflict in bahrain and no surprise he managed to find one bahrain showdown divides iraqis on sectarian lines all he then needed was a single iraqi sunni who could present a dissenting voice to the shiite parties which have been loud in expressing solidarity with the bahraini demonstrators unsurprisingly he succeeded in that respect too his victim was one ahmad yunis described as a sunni lawyer who thought he saw an iranian hand in the bahraini uprising if we look at the critical situation in bahrain we would be too naive if we ignored the iranian fingers having a gulf country ruled by a shiite majority would make iran more proud than having the atomic bomb and voila reuters had its story and the idea that sectarian conflict might re erupt in iraq because of bahrain could find a receptive mainstream media audience worldwide today the iraqi parliament presented a far more nuanced take on the situation in bahrain true many of the speeches in support of the bahraini demonstrators were given by shiite islamists as could perhaps have been predicted but there were other dimensions too kurdish and christian deputies added their support for the bahraini opposition a gathering of female deputies seconded a motion to protest against the highhandedness of the bahraini authorities salman al jamili a sunni from the iraqiyya list expressed sympathy with the mostly but not exclusively shiite demonstrators who in his view had been marginalised by the sunni regime and ultimately it was the sunni speaker of parliament also from the iraqiyya bloc usama al nujayfi who cancelled the rest of today s session in protest against what the sunni regime in bahrain is doing he called the bahraini uprising a popular movement and also condemned interference in bahrain which in the current situation can only mean the saudis and other gcc states nujayfi s action should give pause to those who want to reduce him to some kind of saudi marionette at least from that point of view his action today was a positive one as it once more showed that iraqi sunnis are far ahead of most other sunnis in the regions in terms of building relationships of trust with its fellow shiite compatriots and in recognising true popular movements whatever their sectarian make up incidentally relations between the sunni arabs and the kurds also took a step forward today parliament formally issued a decision condemning as genocide the halabja massacre in 1988 during the closing phase of the iran iraq war what was perhaps less positive about the whole affair was the fact that the parliamentary recess had after all been anticipated anyway because of the kurdish new year celebrations this weekend i e following the persian calendar it should be remembered that since it began a new session last summer after the 7 march 2010 elections parliament has in fact only been able to issue two laws i e the budget and a law on the deputies of the president it has been unable to actually elect those deputies additionally the whole affair provided yet another excuse for postponing the parliamentary confirmation of new security ministers which appeared to have gathered some momentum this week only to be absent from the agenda when parliament convened this morning parliament is now on vacation until 27 march prime minister nuri al maliki will remain acting minister for defence and the interior who would have thought that one year after the declaration of the final election results and his defeat at the ballot box in late march 2010 he should be able to demonstrate such remarkable staying power posted in iraq s 2010 parliamentary election sectarian master narrative 45 comments tamimi s challenge and why it will go nowhere posted by reidar visser on monday 14 march 2011 17 48 ismai...
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