Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

the, iraq, in, parliament, new, iraqi, and, on, maliki, pm, nomination, elects, of, speakership, gulf, analysis, archives, categories, meta, my, latest, book, amazon, com, twitter, updates, subscribe, recent, posts, presidency, battle, trouble, fuad, masum, as, president, for, first, time, large, field, presidential, candidates, its, shiite, alliance, wavering, question, what, went, wrong, khedery, version, opens, supreme, court, certifies, 30, april, general, election, result, responds, to, isis, attack, mosul,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (601), and (131), that (119), iraqi (91), for (83), with (73), maliki (68), was (65), iraq (63), parliament (63), this (53), candidate (43), bloc (43), has (42), about (39), from (39), his (37), #speaker (37), 2010 (36), #president (35), new (35), khedery (35), have (34), shiite (34), been (33), there (31), more (30), government (30), some (29), 2014 (26), not (26), alliance (26), are (26), one (25), first (24), political (23), vote (23), than (22), what (22), constitutional (22), election (21), posted (20), constitution (20), july (20), candidates (20), its (19), who (19), 2011 (19), but (19), court (18), all (18), which (18), may (17), also (17), should (17), 2006 (17), had (17), would (16), will (16), law (16), votes (16), after (15), 2009 (15), next (14), comments (14), much (14), rather (14), today (14), before (14), only (14), august (14), other (13), then (13), they (13), most (13), supreme (13), time (13), any (13), december (13), 2008 (13), 2012 (13), 2013 (13), now (12), june (12), parliamentary (12), formation (12), could (12), general (12), deputies (12), second (12), majority (12), during (12), presidential (12), 2007 (12), reidar (11), visser (11), elections (11), their (11), seems (11), days (11), own (11), sunni (11), minister (11), april (11), kurdish (11), session (11), september (11), january (11), march (11), process (10), american (10), even (10), point (10), prime (10), against (10), since (10), ruling (10), sectarian (10), can (10), february (10), abbadi (10), masum (10), nomination (10), october (10), like (9), isis (9), between (9), state (9), largest (9), another (9), premier (9), jibburi (9), himself (9), absolute (9), apparently (9), issues (9), well (9), right (9), november (9), piece (8), very (8), them (8), result (8), deputy (8), form (8), those (8), were (8), until (8), when (8), key (8), meeting (8), term (8), though (8), suggested (8), instead (8), following (8), presidency (8), com (7), how (7), kurds (7), actually (7), politicians (7), whereas (7), cabinet (7), within (7), secular (7), biggest (7), come (7), nuri (7), out (7), outside (7), into (7), two (7), case (7), attempt (7), tuesday (7), these (7), make (7), beyond (7), way (7), post (7), baathification (7), opinion (7), fuad (7), previous (6), sort (6), among (6), issue (6), seat (6), where (6), seen (6), third (6), speakership (6), many (6), indeed (6), both (6), policy (6), him (6), however (6), role (6), things (6), say (6), kind (6), vice (6), just (6), ahead (6), day (6), article (6), far (6), particular (6), interesting (6), chalabi (6), got (6), nominee (6), view (5), uncategorized (5), once (5), despite (5), going (5), seem (5), hand (5), support (5), situation (5), charge (5), list (5), questions (5), salim (5), party (5), back (5), happened (5), official (5), federal (5), media (5), present (5), potential (5), jaafari (5), shiites (5), legal (5), simply (5), mps (5), reports (5), clear (5), islamist (5), did (5), coalition (5), members (5), narrative (5), course (5), certainly (5), does (5), positive (5), whose (5), such (5), itself (5), part (5), quite (5), regarding (5), comes (5), several (5), sunday (5), remains (5), reported (5), elects (5), field (5), matter (5), blocs (5), size (5), naming (5), federalism (5), wordpress (4), gulf (4), analysis (4), already (4), website (4), entries (4), current (4), remain (4), assistance (4), suggestions (4), 2003 (4), decision (4), excluded (4), iraqiyya (4), being (4), diyala (4), replacement (4), dynamics (4), important (4), because (4), actual (4), speaking (4), positions (4), use (4), aspect (4), based (4), probably (4), open (4), find (4), hafez (4), little (4), mahdi (4), age (4), met (4), having (4), nothing (4), exactly (4), says (4), approach (4), made (4), maybe (4), fact (4), clearly (4), ethno (4), isci (4), difficult (4), example (4), doesn (4), fully (4), although (4), goes (4), impressive (4), posts (4), voted (4), forming (4), suggests (4), perhaps (4), purposes (4), whether (4), information (4), hours (4), reportedly (4), agreement (4), prominent (4), largely (4), enough (4), least (4), spoils (4), separate (4), elected (4), pan (4), timeline (4), blank (4), protest (4), battle (4), job (4), ministers (4), 2005 (4), get (3), site (3), log (3), subscribe (3), account (3), rhetoric (3), problem (3), hard (3), see (3), talk (3), americans (3), military (3), iranian (3), must (3), still (3), consider (3), khuzaie (3), council (3), member (3), single (3), nujayfi (3), islamic (3), winners (3), approved (3), won (3), relating (3), cases (3), longer (3), procedural (3), problems (3), effect (3), last (3), monday (3), uia (3), description (3), shia (3), plus (3), ibrahim (3), known (3), take (3), agree (3), agreeing (3), parties (3), continue (3), debate (3), quorum (3), aspects (3), ability (3), limited (3), truth (3), cannot (3), real (3), agreed (3), failed (3), 165 (3), 100 (3), agenda (3), meet (3), baghdad (3), attacks (3), electing (3), international (3), master (3), sometimes (3), past (3), obama (3), administration (3), leadership (3), impression (3), same (3), biden (3), regardless (3), crucial (3), executive (3), clergy (3), najaf (3), too (3), played (3), making (3), period (3), allawi (3), leading (3), approval (3), turn (3), abd (3), early (3), yet (3), theme (3), seemed (3), concerns (3), formed (3), tareq (3), late (3), events (3), politics (3), limits (3), again (3), upon (3), tried (3), relevant (3), problematic (3), available (3), according (3), arabic (3), cia (3), unless (3), given (3), particularly (3), themselves (3), potentially (3), question (3), majoritarianism (3), lists (3), harb (3), fatlawi (3), including (3), year (3), side (3), hopefully (3), candidacy (3), struggle (3), nominated (3), indicate (3), ongoing (3), claims (3), action (3), puk (3), system (3), alone (3), large (3), timelines (3), offline (3), formal (3), education (3), window (3), off (3), said (3), moon (3), respect (3), expires (3), irrelevant (3), leaders (3), bar (2), manage (2), sign (2), subscribed (2), create (2), articles (2), mosul (2), relates (2), nationalism (2), foreign (2), attack (2), continues (2), crisis (2), likely (2), main (2), forward (2), conditions (2), focused (2), national (2), further (2), imposing (2), future (2), proposals (2), opens (2), call (2), end (2), elect (2), month (2), politicized (2), qadisiyya (2), province (2), local (2), hussein (2), every (2), contest (2), internal (2), pro (2), humayri (2), various (2), conflict (2), pending (2), membership (2), judicial (2), authorities (2), move (2), western (2), compare (2), hashemi (2), realistic (2), ready (2), stressed (2), thing (2), needs (2), practice (2), sunnis (2), using (2), force (2), aware (2), numbers (2), interests (2), boycott (2), explicitly (2), per (2), firstly (2), sadly (2), ended (2), found (2), easy (2), solution (2), without (2), results (2), calling (2), building (2), became (2), progress (2), sadrists (2), number (2), verbal (2), budget (2), failure (2), rate (2), together (2), along (2), formalities (2), complain (2), counter (2), hour (2), religious (2), community (2), leverage (2), separatism (2), idea (2), times (2), washington (2), calls (2), players (2), underlying (2), here (2), united (2), states (2), exercise (2), influence (2), juncture (2), change (2), mind (2), chief (2), forces (2), service (2), bit (2), enlist (2), region (2), bad (2), headed (2), ayyad (2), major (2), evaluate (2), parts (2), basra (2), level (2), story (2), empirical (2), trust (2), objective (2), reason (2), relations (2), marine (2), entirely (2), unknown (2), language (2), reference (2), bush (2), muqtada (2), meant (2), eventually (2), finance (2), order (2), sense (2), conveniently (2), act (2), voices (2), enemies (2), arguably (2), exist (2), writes (2), rulings (2), orthodox (2), reading (2), appeared (2), consistently (2), closer (2), isn (2), nonetheless (2), greater (2), accommodate (2), friends (2), adel (2), good (2), prior (2), starters (2), considerable (2), darling (2), really (2), announced (2), electoral (2), ballots (2), misleading (2), sources (2), source (2), ambassador (2), long (2), credible (2), circles (2), over (2), filkins (2), promoted (2), recent (2), ali (2), especially (2), skills (2), something (2), high (2), personal (2), visit (2), cited (2), worth (2), recently (2), towards (2), went (2), version (2), short (2), press (2), talked (2), 328 (2), stipulates (2), produce (2), consensus (2), demanded (2), office (2), lately (2), heated (2), humam (2), comprehensive (2), contrived (2), impose (2), selection (2), adviser (2), smaller (2), hanan (2), proceedings (2), reached (2), package (2), deals (2), history (2), degree (2), highlighted (2), unified (2), theory (2), whatever (2), briefly (2), apart (2), wavering (2), conducted (2), effects (2), adherence (2), represented (2), challenge (2), 149 (2), advance (2), considered (2), previously (2), sheikh (2), haydar (2), withdrew (2), voting (2), currently (2), former (2), required (2), above (2), held (2), reaching (2), decide (2), pressure (2), liberating (2), north (2), tikrit (2), contrast (2), registered (2), talabani (2), challenged (2), judge (2), presented (2), presentation (2), each (2), due (2), adhered (2), appeal (2), details (2), criteria (2), status (2), step (2), ceremonial (2), republic (2), additional (2), position (2), identify (2), soon (2), clarify (2), non (2), interventions (2), figures (2), her (2), best (2), getter (2), stand (2), withdraw (2), meetings (2), 175 (2), illegal (2), discussion (2), expect (2), legality (2), expected (2), thursday (2), rest (2), weekend (2), play (2), amount (2), discretion (2), exists (2), fails (2), words (2), chance (2), few (2), holidays (2), counted (2), duty (2), governed (2), why (2), logical (2), cut (2), procedures (2), trouble (2), deadline (2), engage (2), name (2), trying (2), rss (2), amazon (2), feed (2), regionalism (2), 2015 (2), started, design, collapse, subscriptions, reader, report, content, privacy, join, 203, subscribers, free, blog, http, www, foreignaffairs, 141563, response, offensive, northern, enduring, tension, sectarianism, thought, affairs, friday, responds, meanwhile, savagery, consolidate, quasi, independence, excuse, drumming, emergency, track, therefore, aid, ideas, reconciliation, initiative, precede, delivery, fit, logic, conditionality, disconcertingly, void, specific, measures, satisfy, lack, favourite, line, ups, imposed, possibly, thinking, belong, era, cpa, certification, door, acting, convene, theoretically, running, conclusions, fourth, abbas, jabir, winner, politician, defecting, independents, shahristani, subunit, unlikely, fabricate, exclusion, rank, loyalty, meticulously, monitored, supply, ngoing, rivalry, climate, approaching, boiling, inevitably, pertain, affiliations, ran, raad, dahlaki, umar, forms, cooperated, governor, ousted, allies, bitterly, caveat, cleared, charges, serious, crime, settlement, appointed, sound, somewhat, messy, provisionally, took, reconvene, settle, voluntarily, substituted, emerged, ihec, statement, published, certified, provisional, certifies, gross, disconnect, squeeze, foregone, conclusion, arab, composition, subject, consisted, loyalists, khudayr, hadi, ameri, hashem, faleh, fayyad, ammar, hakim, karar, khafaji, wholeheartedly, interpretation, tug, war, inside, admit, constitutionally, three, top, rooted, tradition, occasions, precedent, hold, 170, proceed, suit, noted, immaterial, demands, valid, couple, speed, intervention, everlasting, ending, parliamentarians, papal, conclave, style, suddenly, extremely, powerful, coincided, signs, front, maftuha, jalsa, resumed, 255, outset, show, fallen, low, arabs, deliberately, boycotted, extent, offended, altercation, put, protested, saw, accordingly, wasn, except, fell, mainly, remained, work, temporary, credit, wait, ramadan, fixed, unsurprisingly, else, inaugural, oldest, chairs, introduced, substance, refusal, compromise, krg, share, blunt, violation, prompted, heckling, blunter, derogatory, represents, small, proposed, half, break, calm, tensions, explore, opportunities, promised, voters, alternation, combination, central, approaches, supported, personality, never, embraced, thereby, contributing, uneasy, looked, paranoid, stable, arming, sides, barzani, feel, boldened, frequent, telephone, undeniably, gets, empowered, packaging, employs, contradictive, unhelpful, caricatures, methodological, sorted, contradictions, persist, unsatisfactory, accompanying, intriguingly, specify, decisive, event, radically, detail, biography, introduction, escape, notice, chairman, dubai, dragoman, partners, exxon, mobil, negotiated, quick, embrace, separatist, materialized, months, resignation, courting, promoting, secularists, cum, islamists, shouldn, surprised, inconsistencies, told, 2001, terror, company, entry, kurdistan, generally, paints, mostly, sympathetic, picture, left, returned, special, mission, frenzy, autumn, changed, drums, rosy, image, moderate, encompassing, groups, bid, obtain, highest, nationalist, alternative, accounts, allegations, supposed, desire, flatten, whole, urging, airstrikes, entire, city, blocks, knights, operations, need, amplify, facts, persuasiveness, brings, dubious, expert, witnesses, presence, net, reducing, credibility, chronicler, finds, mention, stunned, father, turned, asked, troops, dying, keep, son, power, acquire, higher, monopoly, fathering, belief, hundreds, executives, children, serving, army, colourful, used, matters, worse, cite, none, sadr, labelling, tyrant, buttress, argument, similar, lines, great, democrat, surely, true, biased, representation, describes, sounding, authority, included, weighty, ministries, flashes, threatened, arrest, withdrawal, jumps, targeting, rafi, eisawi, junctures, gone, differently, acumen, balanced, unlimited, unrestrained, kowtowing, radical, overly, crude, characterizations, workings, judiciary, pick, focusing, bluntest, examples, overreach, abide, kangaroo, courts, favorable, veto, perfectly, predictable, full, legislative, projects, disagree, merely, repeating, responding, concoction, authored, hoc, measure, independent, commissions, tendentious, deemed, coalescence, legitimate, under, portray, coup, inspection, background, materials, addressing, ambiguity, existed, onwards, definition, generalize, safeguarding, constant, encroachments, suffice, context, deal, truly, sponsored, strategic, created, khederys, guided, ayad, extensive, coerced, justice, rivals, participating, across, disingenuous, resuscitation, driven, vain, summer, newspapers, personally, owned, khedary, progressive, attempts, hardliners, exclude, systematically, employ, dirty, tricks, foremost, disqualify, fought, battles, retain, adala, jumped, propaganda, bandwagon, documented, contributes, distrust, overall, reliability, raises, rely, informant, base, valuable, provided, learn, habit, working, officials, crocker, petraeus, virtually, strengthening, tutelage, periods, consisting, chiefly, chris, hill, brett, mcgurk, nsc, crucially, joe, betted, extend, enabled, soldiers, stay, continuing, place, appears, differ, slightly, revealed, dexter, unnamed, candidature, jeffrey, beals, referred, officers, department, discordance, narratives, review, signed, origins, served, assertion, leader, guy, everything, admission, rarity, exception, makers, years, close, ties, described, emergence, involving, london, urgent, medical, treatment, lot, taking, look, lengthy, wrong, noting, weather, dovetailed, threats, attended, 225, 235, compared, averages, cycle, means, complete, requires, try, liberate, practices, might, alliances, capable, affecting, deadlock, fficial, record, 270, worried, giving, away, whom, don, broader, contradiction, models, afflict, spring, preceding, pathetically, creation, sure, minor, persisting, preoccupied, dividing, traditional, discussions, hamudi, forerunner, sadrist, interestingly, refrained, pushing, through, enable, adjourned, arrive, apparent, reluctance, breaks, trends, evident, temporarily, wonders, resonate, avowed, tiny, minority, christian, shabak, sabaeans, ally, receive, attention, stance, envisages, sequenced, piecemeal, done, alike, possibility, stayed, leap, faith, guarantees, speakers, speak, duly, manner, minute, interpret, range, tied, bomb, intra, testing, waters, forthcoming, attract, faction, gain, atmosphere, marked, hurting, helping, morning, hammudi, frontrunner, acclamation, gorran, aram, mohammad, gaining, 171, dramatic, ahmed, mounting, surprise, faris, yusuf, juju, secularist, win, competition, 107, 188, patterns, secrecy, paper, originally, wider, usama, 194, challenger, shuruq, abaji, female, invalid, historical, reasons, followed, letter, subjected, covering, premiership, weeks, ago, knot, disentangled, dominate, concerning, country, renewed, around, exact, scored, significant, victory, accordance, provisions, openness, getting, larger, usual, terms, multiplication, democracy, stark, discourse, contestants, ranging, think, ethnicities, believed, arbiter, came, barham, salih, practical, explosion, jalal, minimum, feature, brief, meaning, presidents, wednesday, suggest, proper, vetting, possibilities, presser, legally, missing, subscriber, maintenance, hacker, prevents, insights, nominations, candidacies, submit, credentials, whereupon, vet, etc, appeals, initial, developments, posturing, sessions, forgot, ueseless, altogether, hopeully, preoccupation, task, nominate, identity, publicly, futile, quoted, counterclaims, ask, declared, repeatedly, emerges, legitimately, wasting, existent, unseemly, baha, aaraji, intimidated, withdrawing, faiq, leaving, musawi, absent, unable, optics, miserable, rupture, tendencies, direction, mature, run, distinctively, impotent, gave, inspired, speeches, defending, choice, leave, decided, closed, received, convincing, indicative, broad, achieved, 218, launched, capacity, she, handful, verified, statistics, carried, distinctly, rejected, honoured, wasted, arguments, interest, putting, big, acquired, embassy, care, fashion, underway, faster, committee, disqualifications, proceeded, dozen, irony, symbolism, air, secretary, ban, visited, address, arriving, importance, adhering, unaware, postpone, planned, eid, contemplate, debates, focus, scenario, noteworthy, almost, sensational, yes, you, read, correctly, requirements, mandate, interpreted, select, whomever, thinks, greatest, carrying, demanding, putative, bigger, later, presents, needed, crystal, taken, estimated, engaged, ridiculous, correspondence, different, acutely, coming, foreground, factions, cling, erroneous, elements, instructions, virtue, charged, assumed, beside, enter, sets, vagueness, jurisprudence, criticized, analysed, basically, provides, specification, contention, talks, secondly, introduce, relationship, unclear, establishes, date, saying, counts, principle, admitted, strictly, establish, finding, begins, sitting, qaima, kutla, niyabiyya, individually, programme, unlike, elaborate, sensitive, unpredictable, stage, comment, called, jurisdiction, prerogative, public, business, opine, formally, attempted, beautiful, fiercest, singularly, person, jobs, complaints, sympathy, inconvenience, prestigious, tasmiya, supporters, hunkering, down, pointing, closing, nominating, week, fridays, dynamic, reject, induce, maneouvering, array, prominently, saleh, mutlak, qutayba, openly, challenging, tip, balance, commenced, newswires, momentum, defining, constitutes, knowledge, sketchy, 245, debated, unfolding, permanent, committees, approves, approve, security, controversial, rise, secede, groundbreaking, decentralization, libya, dimension, yemen, draft, constitutionality, reform, push, aug, 2026, tweets, reidarvisser, twitter, updates, world, books, latest, book, meta, 133, rule, oil, kirkuk, disputed, territories, 280, soft, partition, middle, east, areas, southern, categories, archives, home,

Text of the page (random words):
the cabinet and or president before they can be voted upon one can agree or disagree with that orthodox reading of the iraqi constitution but in itself it is nothing new and the court was merely repeating itself rather than responding to some sort of maliki concoction authored as an ad hoc measure after the law on term limits appeared yet another theme that seemed biased in khedery s account concerns sunni secular representation in the maliki government that was eventually formed in december 2010 khedery describes this as impressive sounding posts with little authority well those posts included some rather weighty ministries such as finance in order to make sense of his own narrative khedery then conveniently flashes forward to the threatened arrest of vice president tareq al hashemi right after the us withdrawal from iraq in december 2011 and then jumps further to the targeting of rafi al eisawi the finance minister in late 2012 between those events however there were junctures where things could have gone very differently in iraqi politics if the us government had had the acumen to act in a more balanced way between unlimited support for maliki on the one hand and unrestrained kowtowing to the most radical voices among his enemies on the other then as if there is a need to amplify his story beyond empirical facts and as if he doesn t himself fully trust the persuasiveness of his own narrative khedery brings in some rather dubious expert witnesses whose presence in the story actually has the net effect of reducing khedery s own credibility as an objective chronicler first khedery finds reason to mention the fact that one stunned executive apparently of the council on foreign relations the father of an american marine turned to me and asked american troops are dying to keep that son of a b maliki in power no khedery one does not acquire some sort of higher monopoly on truth by fathering an american marine although that kind of belief is not entirely unknown in the us it would probably be no more difficult to find hundreds of executives with children serving in the us army who would be ready to use exactly the same kind of colourful language that was used about maliki with reference to president bush obama or both to make matters even worse khedery goes on to cite none other than muqtada al sadr for his labelling of maliki as a tyrant and that was meant to buttress khedery s own argument along similar lines well if muqtada the great democrat says so well surely it has to be true things like these make it more difficult to evaluate other aspects of the khedery piece that are not well known from previous accounts what for example are we to make about allegations about maliki s supposed desire to flatten whole parts of basra urging american airstrikes to level entire city blocks during the charge of the knights operations against the sadrists in early 2008 generally speaking khedery paints a mostly positive or sympathetic picture of maliki until khedery himself left baghdad in february 2009 however when khedery returned to iraq on a special mission during the frenzy of government formation in autumn 2010 he had clearly changed his mind about maliki and had only bad things to say about him instead for this period khedery drums up a rosy image of iraqiyya headed by ayyad allawi a moderate pro western coalition encompassing all of iraq s major ethno sectarian groups apparently khedery himself played a leading role in the attempt to make abd al mahdi of the shiite islamist isci the pm candidate of iraqiyya as well as a bid to obtain approval from the highest clergy in najaf for this kind of nationalist alternative very secular indeed that turn to najaf intriguingly though khedery does not specify any single juncture or decisive event that made him change his mind about maliki so radically there is however a crucial little detail in his biography in the introduction that cannot and should not escape notice today khedery is chairman and chief executive of the dubai based dragoman partners in 2011 as an executive with exxon mobil he negotiated the company s entry into the kurdistan region of iraq now that was quick khedery s embrace of some of the most separatist forces among the iraqi kurds apparently materialized only months after his own resignation from us government service in iraq in december 2010 a bit kurdish separatism courting the shiite clergy in najaf promoting secularists cum islamists maybe we shouldn t be too surprised about inconsistencies like these since khedery already told us that the 11 september 2001 terror attacks played a key role in making him enlist for government service in iraq which in actual fact had nothing to do with those attacks the alternation between and sometimes combination of support for the iraqi central government and kurdish separatism is of course nothing new in american approaches to iraq in the past the obama administration supported maliki as a leadership personality but never embraced his idea of a political majority government thereby contributing to an uneasy end result which at times looked paranoid and sectarian instead of stable and national in the current political crisis one can certainly get the impression that washington is arming all sides at the same time nujayfi and barzani feel boldened by frequent telephone calls from vp biden whereas maliki undeniably gets empowered by us military assistance regardless of exactly what the packaging says exactly like khedery the obama administration employs a contradictive approach to iraq based on unhelpful caricatures of the key iraqi players until the underlying methodological issues here are sorted out these contradictions are likely to persist with unsatisfactory results accompanying any attempt by the united states to exercise political influence in iraq posted in sectarian master narrative us policy in iraq leverage issues 11 comments the new iraqi parliament opens posted by reidar visser on tuesday 1 july 2014 20 39 so the new iraqi parliament met today after having promised iraqi voters the shiite religious authorities and the international community that they would do so unsurprisingly they did little else than meet following the inaugural formalities mahdi al hafez the speaker of age the oldest mp who chairs the first session introduced the only point of substance on the agenda the election of a parliament speaker and his two deputies at that point a kurdish mp found the time had come to complain about the refusal of baghdad to compromise on the krg share of the budget this rather blunt violation of the official agenda prompted heckling and even blunter derogatory verbal counter attacks speaker hafez who represents the small and secular iraqi coalition with both sunni and shiite members proposed a half hour break to calm tensions and explore the opportunities for electing a speaker when the session resumed many of the 255 deputies that had been present at the outset failed to show up it was suggested that there was no longer a quorum 165 mps indeed some reports suggested the number of deputies present had fallen as low as 70 100 what apparently had happened was that kurds and sunni arabs deliberately boycotted the kurds probably to some extent offended by the verbal altercation about its attempt to put budget issues on the agenda but also with suggestions that both protested what they saw as a failure by the shia alliance to come up with a replacement candidate for nuri al maliki as premier what was clear at any rate was that there was no speaker candidate accordingly there wasn t much to do except agree the next session and it fell to the mainly shiite islamist mps that remained in the session to work this out together with hafez the temporary speaker to hafez s credit he did not go along with suggestions by ibrahim al jaafari that this could wait until after ramadan instead another meeting next tuesday 8 july was fixed a couple of comments on the constitutional and legal aspects of this firstly there has been much talk about the ability of the iraqi supreme court to speed up the government formation process based on its intervention back in 2010 sadly though the ability of the court to do much in practice is probably limited in 2010 its ruling against parliament was focused on its open ended and everlasting jalsa maftuha session iraqi politicians have found an easy solution to this by simply ending today s session without results and then calling a new one the truth is the supreme court cannot force iraqi parliamentarians to remain within the parliament building until they find a solution papal conclave style what actually happened in 2010 was not that the court suddenly became extremely powerful but that its ruling coincided with the first real signs of progress on the political front after the sadrists agreed to a second maliki term second it should be stressed that constitutionally speaking the only thing the iraqi parliament needs to agree on at its first meeting is the speaker the practice of agreeing on all three top positions i e speaker president and premier is not rooted in the constitution rather it is a tradition that has come into use on two previous occasions in 2010 and 2006 sunnis and kurds who are using this precedent to force the shiite alliance to come up with a replacement of maliki should be aware of this aspect since for the first time the shiites in the new parliament hold the numbers 170 plus to proceed with elections of a speaker to suit their own interests even if the main sunni and kurdish parties continue to boycott it should be noted though that the debate about quorum or no quorum is immaterial to the speakership vote which explicitly demands an absolute majority to be valid in any case per the iraqi constitution this point is also important because there seems to be a gross disconnect between the actual iraqi political process and the media description of it consider once more the move to squeeze out maliki which is seen as a foregone conclusion in all western and most arab media compare it with the composition of the last key shia alliance meeting on the subject on monday where those present consisted of 6 potential maliki loyalists maliki himself plus khudayr al khuzaie hadi al ameri hashem al hashemi faleh al fayyad and ibrahim al jaafari whereas only 2 ammar al hakim and karar al khafaji are known to be wholeheartedly against a third term with a situation like that a more realistic interpretation is that the tug of war inside the shiite alliance may take rather longer than some on the outside seem ready to admit posted in iraq parliamentary elections 2014 uia dynamics uncategorized 8 comments the iraqi supreme court certifies the 30 april general election result posted by reidar visser on monday 16 june 2014 19 54 it s official the provisional result of iraq s 30 april general election published last month has been certified by the federal supreme court in the ihec statement to this effect there is a caveat 4 seat winners have not been approved and won t be approved until they have been cleared of charges relating to serious crime cases against them pending settlement of the court cases their membership in parliament will remain pending and no replacement deputies will be appointed whereas this may sound somewhat messy it is actually what happened also in 2010 when 2 seat winners were provisionally excluded back then it took longer for parliament to reconvene than for the judicial authorities to settle one of the cases and one candidate was voluntarily substituted by another candidate from his bloc so no procedural problems emerged with the general political climate in iraq approaching boiling point questions will inevitably pertain to the political affiliations of those 4 that were excluded 3 of them come from a single list the sunni pro nujayfi list that ran in diyala province salim al jibburi raad al dahlaki and umar al humayri they have all been in various forms of conflict with prime minister nuri al maliki and jibburi once an iraqi islamic party member who cooperated with the first maliki government and humayri ex governor of diyala ousted by maliki allies most bitterly so still before running to conclusions about another politicized court decision in iraq consider the fourth excluded candidate abbas jabir al khuzaie a seat winner in qadisiyya province for maliki s own state of law list khuzaie is a local politician from the qadisiyya council who was once with the secular iraqiyya before defecting to state of law in 2011 he was then with the independents bloc of hussein al shahristani and may still be a member of that bloc subunit still despite o ngoing internal rivalry in state of law it seems unlikely that maliki would fabricate an exclusion from his own rank in a situation where the loyalty of every new single iraqi deputy is meticulously being monitored in the contest to form the biggest parliament bloc and supply the next premier candidate the certification of the election result opens the door for government formation the iraqi president or his acting deputy must issue a call for the iraqi parliament to convene within 15 days i e at the end of june theoretically parliament will then elect its speaker and within a month a new president who will then charge the candidate of the largest bloc in parliament to form a government for iraqi politicians despite the current crisis the parliamentary government formation process is likely to remain the main political track going forward it is a problem therefore that much us rhetoric on conditions for aid to the iraqi government seem focused on ideas about some sort of national reconciliation initiative that would precede the delivery of further assistance it is very hard to see how that would fit in with the iraqi government formation logic whereas there has been much talk among americans about imposing conditionality on future military assistance in iraq us rhetoric has been disconcertingly void of specific proposals for measures that would satisfy them on the other hand there is no lack of american suggestions for favourite cabinet line ups that could be imposed possibly even with iranian support some of this thinking seems to belong to the era of the cpa in 2003 04 rather than in today s situation meanwhile isis continues its savagery the kurds consolidate their quasi independence and maliki for once actually has an excuse for drumming up state of emergency rhetoric posted in iraq parliamentary elections 2014 9 comments maliki responds to the isis attack on mosul posted by reidar visser on friday 13 june 2014 19 55 my piece for foreign affairs on maliki s response to the isis offensive in northern iraq with some comments about how it relates to the enduring tension between sectarianism and iraqi nationalism in maliki s political thought http www foreignaffairs com articles 141563 reidar visser more than mosul posted in uncategor...