Sunday, February 06, 2022

How long can the western press ignore Nouri?

Is the western press still pretending Shi'ite cleric and killer Moqtada al-Sadr is a politician, a king maker, someone who makes things happen?


Iraq was supposed to announce the president tomorrow.  Not going to happen.  Iraq's Constitution will once again not be followed.


We're still pretending Moqtada knows what he's doing?  


The failed leader benefitted from the lowest turnout in an Iraq election since the 2003-US-led invasion.  Even with Moqtada telling his cult to vote -- ordering them to -- his candidates still got less votes -- the lowest number that they've ever gotten.  A detail the soft-on-Sadr western press loved to ignore.  He doesn't even have the hold on hs followers hat he once had.


REUTERS reports:


Iraq's Supreme Court on Sunday suspended a former foreign minister's presidential bid over graft allegations and many lawmakers said they would boycott a Monday vote for a new head of state, prolonging a political standoff.

The court said the candidacy of Hoshyar Zebari, a Western-friendly veteran Iraqi Kurdish statesman, could not proceed until corruption charges from a separate 2016 stint as finance minister were dealt with.

The decision was a blow to populist Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who was the biggest winner in an October election and has vowed to quickly push through a government that could exclude Iranian allies.

Sadr, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of which Zebari is a member and an alliance of Sunni Muslim lawmakers had supported Zebari's bid for president.


Hoshayr Zebari is, of course, Hillary Cinton's good friend.  He's many other things as well but, right now, he's an example of corruption in Iraq.


Is Hoshyar himself corrupt?  I have no idea.  At the time the charges were made, it was said by many that these were smears being used to derail his political career.  True?  If not true, Iraq is incredibly corrupt in every way because they never, in six years, moved forward on the legal charges.  Instead, they just sat them aside.


Now Hoshyar is attempting to run for another office and the charges are brought back up.  


Either they were smears -- and this is a smear as well -- or the Iraqi government from 2016 forward has been so corrupt that they've let a guilty person go free.


Tim Borlay (TURNED NEWS) adds:


On Saturday, the first force in parliament, the current of the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, announced that its 73 deputies would not participate.

Sunday evening, the sovereignty coalition, ie 51 deputies led by the speaker of parliament Mohamed al-Halboussi, a Sadrist ally, also revealed its absence.

Later in the evening, the third pillar of this informal alliance, the influential Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK, 31 deputies), in turn announced its absence, with the aim of continuing consultations and dialogue between the political blocs.



Moqtada's deal making depends upon him holding the players -- that would be the KDP and an al-Halboussi's coalition.  Without them, he has no hold and Nouri al-Maliki is the one in control.


Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri?  His hands are all over this.  Well played, Nouri.  It's highly treminiscent of how he used the electoral commission throughout 2006 and 2010.  He's yet again attempting to derail a candidacy by using a supposedly impartial body.  


And if he succeeds, it brings him ever closer to control of Iraq.


Thursday, the Atlantic Council's Abbas Kadhim observed:


Sadr would like to increase his coalition by adding a number of his Shia competitors, but he is vehemently opposed to allying with former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose State of Law coalition currently has thirty-eight seats in the COR. Maliki just managed to secure a renewal of his term as chairman of the Da’wa Party on January 15, and seems to have been able to keep his large non-Sadrist alliance together (until now), despite Sadr’s multiple attempts to court some of Maliki’s allies.


Ahead of the election, we repeaedly warned Nouri was still a player.  The western press ignored him.  Since the election, we've repeatedly warned Nouri is a player and the western press has ignored that reality.  More and more people are starting to realize that they can't cover the politial climate currently without covering Nouri.


The following sites updated:








 

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