Iraq’s Sadr demands Kurds, Sunnis stop hampering Allawi’s new government

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has said Kurds and Sunnis must stop insisting on their own partisan ministers for posts in the new cabinet of Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi.

Sadr, who heads the Iraqi parliament’s biggest bloc, Sayirun, has thrown his support behind the new PM-designate, who hopes to win parliamentary approval for his cabinet of independents and technocrats on Thursday. 

“Muhasasa [partisan politics] has to be ended. Otherwise Iraq is finished,” Sadr said in a Monday interview with al-Sharqiya news. 

“If Sunnis and Kurds cooperate a little bit, and I hope they do cooperate, then enough with their Muhasasa,” said Sadr. 

“And I don’t say he [Allawi] shouldn’t induct a Kurd or a Sunni [into his cabinet], since as components they are part of the mosaic of Iraq, but not partisan ones,” he said.

Iraq’s establishment parties “don’t represent people,” he added. 

Iraq’s post-2003 order was organized along the lines of confessional politics, which meant that ministries and other positions of state, including the most senior jobs of prime minister, president, and parliamentary speaker, were divided along ethnic and sectarian lines.

Protesters have been occupying public squares across Iraq since October, demanding an end to the “Muhasasa” system and corruption in general. Sadr himself has previously criticized the system, as have many of the politicians actually benefiting from patronage networks. 

Iraq is in a state of limbo, as caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi lingers on in office while Allawi cobbles together his cabinet.

“I considered Allawi a last resort, middle ground solution,” Sadr said, explaining why he endorsed a candidate rejected by the protesters as an establishment figure. 

Allawi wants his new cabinet to make a clean break with the days of underhand party dealing. However, breaking with the old system risks excluding Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish minorities from power and allowing the Shiite majority to dominate.

Kurdish and Sunni leaders are pushing back. 

The Kurds argue that because of the Kurdistan Region’s special autonomous status, Kurdish ministers nominated for the federal cabinet must be chosen by Kurdish parties.

On Sunday, a Kurdish intra-party delegation returned from Baghdad empty handed following meetings with Allawi. They met with the Kurdistan Region president, prime minister, and parliament speaker alongside party leaders on Monday to discuss their next move.

They urged on Allawi to revise his government formation mechanism.

If the parties continue trying to influence the shape of the cabinet, “I will no longer be silent,” Sadr warned.

“I hope Kurdish parties don’t add to the Muhasasa. Enough. Iraq has suffered from it and they have too. I don’t want them to suffer any more damage and for us to get separated even further,” argued Sadr.

“We don’t hate the Kurds, we love them,” he insisted.

“There should no longer be a Kurd working for Kurds, a Sunni working for Sunnis, or a Shiite working for Shiites. This should not continue.” 

Early elections are a top priority, Sadr added.