Iraq faces deadlock after ‘West-friendly’ candidate suspended

ABU DHABI: Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, was the country’s longest-serving foreign minister, often socializing with Western diplomats and journalists. Zebari bid to run for the presidency of Iraq, but his candidacy was suspended by the federal court on charges of corruption. The suspension caused delay in election.

The presidential election was indefinitely postponed on Monday, stalling the already delayed  formation of a brand new authorities. The outcomes of October’s parliamentary vote, by which pro-Iran factions had been dealt a major loss, had been only confirmed in December as a consequence of political resentment over the outcomes.

The suspension was a blow to the ambitions of Zebari’s key backer, Moqtada-al-Sadr, the popular Shiite Muslim cleric, who has said to be emerged as a kingmaker and is bent on pushing by way of authorities that excludes his pro-Iran Shiite rivals.

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Sixty-eight year old Zebari was seen as a friend of the West, as well as a successful negotiator. But his political career took a turn in 2016 when, as a finance minister, he was accused of corruption charges and allegedly mishandling public funds. Zebari denied the allegations against him.

According to the post-Saddam system of governance in Iraq, the Kurdish minority assumes the presidency, while the Shiite run the premiership and the Sunnis take the position of parliament speaker.

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Since 2005, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP)’s rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has occupied the ceremonial position based on a reasoning that the PUK would take Iraq’s presidency while the KDP will rule the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Zebari was running against PUK’s incumbent President Barhem Saleh.

But the KDP’s clout in Baghdad parliament has grown of late, emboldening the party and winning its new allies like Sadr. If Sadr gets his way and the bloc he leads elects a president of its liking, Iraq could have a government that has quite a different approach towards Iran.

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