Iraq: Is Political Compromise Possible?
In Newsweek, Adel Abdul Mahdi, the current vice president of Iraq and a member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, about the current political situation in Iraq. In the interview, Mahdi addresses the rift between the State of Law Party (headed by current P.M. Nuri al-Maliki) and his own National Iraqi Alliance (which includes the Sadrists). “Yes, it’s no secret there are differences. Especially about the prime-minister candidate. But the alliance is still there.” The parties formed a coalition to deny the Iraqiyya bloc (led by former PM Iyad Allawi) a majority after the elections in March of this year.
At the Council on Foreign Relations website, Bernard Gwertzman interviews Jane Arraf, the Baghdad correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. Arraf describes the environment of corruption in Iraq: “It’s as blatant as government officials, deputy ministers, directors of departments stuffing cash into their suitcases and leaving the country…On a day-to-day level, it’s very hard for anybody here to get anything done unless they pay a bribe.” When asked about the status of the current political stalemate, Arraf describes some of the political horse trading that is occurring: “The Sadrists will not support him (Maliki) as prime minister because he sent the Iraqi army into Baghdad and into Basra to get rid of their militia. They’ve actually suggested that they could pull out of that coalition and back Allawi, which would be an interesting development.” However, Arraf concludes that, “We keep thinking that perhaps there’s a lot going on beneath the surface, but apparently there isn’t. It is what it is. It’s stalled.”
