U.S., Iran keep Iraqi PM in place as he challenges ruling elite
The United States and Iran have formed an unlikely tacit alliance behind Iraq’s prime minister as he challenges the ruling elite with plans for a non-political cabinet to fight corruption undermining the OPEC nation’s economic and political stability.
Local calls for Haider al-Abadi’s removal — including one by his predecessor as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki — had been growing as he pursued a reshuffle aimed at addressing graft, which became a major issue after oil prices collapsed in 2014 and strained the government’s finances as it launched a costly campaign against Islamic State.
However, the two old adversaries — Washington and Tehran — put pressure on their respective allies in Iraq not to unseat Abadi as he seeks to fill the council of ministers with technocrats, according to politicians, diplomats and analysts.
Sources familiar with the matter said U.S. and Iranian efforts helped stave off an attempt last week to unseat Abadi by Maliki, the head of the Shi’ite Dawa party who controls nearly a third of the seats in parliament. Maliki denied the attempt.
Abadi presented parliament on Thursday with a list of 14 names, many of them academics, to free the ministries from the grip of a political class that has used the system of ethnic and sectarian quotas instituted after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to amass wealth and influence through corruption.
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