ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki defied a wave of opposition to his Shiite-led government and declared he would not go, as Iraq splinters and jihadi-led Sunni insurgents occupy a third of the war-torn country.
In a statement read on Iraqi state TV, a day after the autonomous Kurds in the north virtually bid goodbye to Iraq by setting the ball rolling on an independence referendum, Maliki said he would remain faithful to voters who chose his State of Law Shiite coalition in elections that preceded the current turmoil.
“The voters have shown that the premiership is for the State of Law. Therefore, on no account will I relinquish it,” said Maliki, who is trying to shoehorn himself into a third term.
“The State of Law coalition is the target of an organized campaign by inside and outside forces and they are known to all,” said Maliki.
The premier has blamed Sunni Saudi Arabia for backing jihadi fighters who are in the frontline of a military advance that has seen vast territories fall into their hands, including the largest province – Anbar – and the second-largest city, Mosul.
Maliki’s defiance came even after his greatest political foe, former parliament chief Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, withdrew his candidacy for another term, saying he was doing so in hopes Maliki would do the same.
“I announce the withdrawal of my candidacy for the presidency of the next Parliament, and wish those who could occupy this position to guide and help serve the people,” Nujaifi said.
He explained in a statement on his Facebook page that he was bowing out to make it easier for the main Shiite alliance to choose someone other than Maliki as head of government.
"I appreciate the demands of the National Alliance, who see that Maliki will insist on staying as the head of the cabinet if I nominate myself as speaker of the Council of the Representatives," he said.
Nujaifi said Maliki had been insisting that the Sunni politician must step down from seeking another term before he would consider doing so himself.
As Iraq’s two main political factions – Shiites and Sunnis – quibble in Baghdad, the autonomous Kurdistan Region in the north has announced its intention to exit Iraq. Kurdish President Massoud Barzani asked the Kurds’ own parliament on Thursday to set a date for a referendum on independence.
Sunnis and Kurds walked out of the Iraqi Parliament’s first session this week, jeopardizing efforts at putting together a unity government to stop Iraq from breaking up.
Maliki’s defiance may have sealed Iraq’s fate, where the Kurds have already embarked on a global diplomacy to sound out opinion on Kurdish independence.
“We spoke with the Americans about self-determination, and self-determination is done through a referendum,” Fuad Hussein, the Kurdistan president’s chief of staff, told Rudaw on Thursday in Washington. “It is something that the people of Kurdistan will decide.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Erbil more than a fortnight ago, where he asked the Kurds to stay with a united Iraq and help Baghdad establish an inclusive government. Washington has always opposed Iraq breaking up.
But according to Kurdish Foreign Relations Minister Falah Mustafa, who is also in Washington to meet with American counterparts, the American tone has changed in some meetings.
“Not only in America, but in many other countries -- in Europe, in Arab countries and the international community -- there has been a change that is more welcoming to the Kurdistan Region,” he said.
Under Iraq’s political system imposed after the US toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein, the prime minister is a Shiite, the speaker of the parliament a Sunni and the president a Kurd.
All three blocs have said that they want to know who the other will nominate before naming its own candidate.
The United States and Britain had both urged Maliki to quickly establish a unity government, with robust roles for the Kurds and Sunnis, a proposal Maliki has also rejected.
Iran, Syria and Russia have stepped in to supply Maliki’s government with arms, troops and knowhow, compensating for US and Western reluctance to step into a war that is getting as messy as the conflict in neighboring Syria.
The Kurds have declared they will no longer work with Maliki.
“We cannot work with people who destroyed Iraq,” Barzani said in his speech before the Kurdish parliament.
