The Kurdish forces reached the stage of “breaking the bone” regarding the position of President of Iraq, as they did not agree on a single candidate to present to Parliament in the session scheduled for next week, to choose the President of the Republic.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan insists on renewing the current president, Barham Salih, while the Kurdistan Democratic Party has presented its candidate, Hoshyar Zebari.
The coordinating framework forces (the political umbrella of the armed militias) found themselves between two candidates, which they did not want to be installed, but the “tripartite agreement” concluded between the leader of the Sadrist movement Muqtada al-Sadr, Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, and the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Massoud Barzani, led to this result. .
Disagreements with President Saleh
The coordinating framework forces linked to Iran have deep differences with the current president, Barham Salih, dating back to 2020, when he sided with the popular protests, and called for the necessity of revealing the killers of the demonstrators, which turned the armed groups and their supporters against him, as they accused him of “” treason” and acting against the interests of the people according to its logic.
At the time, Saleh refused to assign the candidate of these forces, Asaad al-Eidani, the current governor of Basra; Being affiliated with forces close to Iran, which Saleh saw at the time, was a step that neither contributed to societal stability nor calmed the popular protests.
What increased the ire of those political forces, such as the Al-Fateh Alliance, the State of Law coalition, and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, against President Saleh, is his ability to issue a decision from the Federal Court, allowing the President of the Republic to assign any person he chooses to form the government, without referring to it, in the event that a candidate is unable to The largest parliamentary bloc is to form a government for the first time, which deprives it of its “right”, which it sees as protecting the system of government.
Barham Salih intends to compete again for the post of Iraqi president.
Saleh said in a televised speech: “I am running for the position of President of the Republic after I won it by an independent national decision, realizing that it is a great honor and a great responsibility,” noting that “the President of the Republic must be a symbol of the country’s unity and sovereignty and a protector of the constitution, and be the president of all Iraqis, a president who does not subordinate.”
He added, “We committed ourselves persistently and to support the benevolent patriots, to proceed under the roof of patriotism in the course of my tasks, and I did not allow under any circumstances and despite the various difficulties and pressures to humiliate the position of the Presidency of the Republic,” noting that “the circumstances of the country impose exceptional work and we have challenges that cannot be postponed.”
dispel differences
In this context, a leader in the “Coordination Framework” confirmed that “the framework forces tend to the current president, Barham Salih, despite previous differences, between the two parties, which was agreed upon within all the framework forces,” noting that “the choice of Zebari may contribute to weakening the public. The framework forces, because of his previous positions on the popular crowd.”
The leader, who declined to be named, adds to Sky News Arabia, that “all the parties affiliated with the coordination framework are afraid of Zebari’s arrival to the position, so they will choose the current president, Barham Salih, in addition to that Zebari, who is the candidate for the tripartite agreement, between al-Sadr and al-Halbousi.” And Barzani in light of the polarization between the framework and the Sadrist movement.”
These forces found themselves in a “dilemma”, as they considered the current president, Barham Salih, a danger to them, and over the past years, several accusations were leveled against him.
As for Zebari, the Iraqi parliament dismissed him, on charges of corruption, with the support of these groups, in 2016, and those factions were launching campaigns against him during the last period, and what increased them was his criticism of the Popular Mobilization factions; Because of the attacks that hit Erbil airport.
And political analyst, Imad Muhammad, believes that “the armed factions fell into a strange contradiction and received several blows, in addition to their defeats in the elections, and before the Federal Court, they found themselves today, facing a difficult choice, which is to nominate one of the two figures to the presidency.”
Muhammad added, in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”, that “the selection of these groups and their vote for one of the candidates will put them in an embarrassing position in front of their fans, because of the propaganda they previously adopted against the current president, Barham Salih, as well as Zebari, and the criticisms leveled at them.”
The Coordination Framework Forces have about 60 seats in the Parliament out of 329 deputies.