http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1092/re1.htm
5 - 11 April 2012
Issue No. 109
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Sunni protests in Iraq
Protests by Iraqi Sunni leader Iyad Allawi at the new US envoy to Baghdad have
underlined Sunni discontent at US policy in the country, writes Salah Nasrawi
Click to view caption
Allawi (r) and Al-Hashemi in Iraq's 2010 parliamentary elections
The leader of the Sunni-led Iraqiya bloc, Iyad Allawi, has lashed out at the
United States for nominating a new envoy to the country whom he accuses of
siding with Iraqi Shia Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, signaling a Sunni loss of
faith in US efforts to rebuild the country after the withdrawal of its troops
last year.
US President Barack Obama last week nominated Brett McGurk, a former member of
George W Bush's national security staff who helped negotiate the 2008 accords
that set the terms for the withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq, to be the
next US ambassador to Baghdad.
In a surprise move that could cast doubt on the nomination, Allawi attacked
McGurk as being "biased" and "unfit" for the position, warning that members of
his Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc could boycott the new American envoy.
Allawi, whose Iraqiya bloc is entangled in a turbulent crisis with Al-Maliki,
said he had sent a letter to the US Congress urging the American legislators to
bloc McGurk's nomination on the basis that he was backing the Iraqi Shia leader.
Allawi previously led the Iraqi National Accord in his US exile, a group which
played a key role in making the case for invading Iraq in 2003 and toppling the
Sunni-dominated regime led by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
He was later named Iraq's first prime minister by the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA), the US-led transitional government led by US Ambassador Paul
Bremer.
In Iraq's 2010 parliamentary elections, Allawi, himself a Shia, headed the
Iraqiya bloc, a Sunni-dominated political coalition meant to be a strong
secular contender to Al-Maliki's Shia National Alliance.
Although Iraqiya had the edge over Al-Maliki's coalition in the elections,
Allawi was not nominated as prime minister, with Iraqiya leaders implicitly
blaming the United States, at the time still occupying Iraq, for favouring
Al-Maliki as a gesture of appeasement towards Iran.
"He [the ambassador] has adopted hostile stances towards Iraqiya, and we have
informed the US Congress that we are opposed to his nomination," Allawi told
Baghdad Television on Saturday.
Allawi's unprecedented criticism of the US administration comes amid signs that
Iraqi Sunni leaders are seeking support from Sunni neighbours to increase
pressure on Al-Maliki and the country's Shia coalition.
McGurk, who is currently senior advisor to US ambassador in Iraq James Jeffrey,
was reported by The Washington Post to have "a very good relationship" with
al-Maliki and considerable experience in Iraq.
He was a legal advisor to the CPA, which took over the country soon after
Saddam was ousted, and later to the US embassy in Baghdad. He also served in
Baghdad as senior advisor to two previous US ambassadors, Ryan Crocker and
Christopher Hill.
The Washington Post said that McGurk's good relationship with al-Maliki was
important given the substantially diminished US influence in the country.
Other commentators have noted that despite his closeness to Al-Maliki, McGurk,
only 38 years old and graduating from university in 1999, has no experience in
running the Baghdad embassy, the largest US embassy in the world, suggesting
that his confirmation will face opposition in Congress.
The row has caused more than a few raised eyebrows and has led to questions
about the role Washington plays in Iraq following the December troop
withdrawal. It also underscores how much the war-battered country has been
turned into a playground for foreign actors.
Iraqi media outlets reported that in his letter to Congress Allawi accused
McGurk of "meddling in Iraq's internal affairs," including in efforts to weaken
the bloc's negotiating position with Al-Maliki.
The letter detailed how McGurk had managed to convince about a dozen mostly
Shia members to quite the Iraqiya bloc, a move that led to criticisms that it
was a purely Sunni group and denied it the character of a secular alliance.
McGurk's nomination also comes as Iraq is facing one of its worst political
crises since the US-led invasion, triggering a wave of violence across the
country including bombings that have killed hundreds of people.
The crisis has been sparked by Al-Maliki's government accusing Iraqi Vice
President Tariq Al-Hashemi of running death squads targeting the country's
Shias. Al-Hashemi, Iraq's highest-ranking Sunni official, has denied the
charges but nevertheless sought refuge in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region
shortly before an arrest warrant was issued against him in December.
On Sunday, the bickering intensified after Al-Hashemi left for Doha, capital of
the Gulf state of Qatar, apparently with the approval of the Kurdish government
whose leaders have repeatedly refused to send him back to Baghdad.
The trip raised tensions between Baghdad's Shia-led government and Sunni-ruled
Qatar, with Al-Maliki's deputy, Hussein Al-Shahristani, saying on Monday that
Qatar's hosting of Al-Hashemi was "unacceptable" and calling on Doha to hand
him over to Baghdad.
Doha's ties with Baghdad were already tense after Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh
Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani accused Al-Maliki's government of mistreating Iraq's
Sunni Muslim minority.
Like other Sunni Gulf monarchies, Qatar is wary of the close ties Iraq's
government has forged with Shia Iran, which Sunni Arabs traditionally view as a
regional rival.
Iraq's prime minister is also embroiled in another dispute with the Gulf
countries that is also fraught with sectarian tensions, since he has disagreed
on how best to respond to the year-long crackdown orchestrated by Syria's
Allawite-dominated regime on protests in Syria, rejecting Sunni-ruled Qatar and
Saudi Arabia's stance on arming the Syrian rebels.
In protest, several Sunni-led Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar,
sent only low-level officials to an Arab League summit hosted by Iraq in
Baghdad last week.
Iraq's Sunnis have also been exploiting the schism between the Al-Maliki
government and Sunni regional powers, including Turkey, to increase the
pressure on Al-Maliki.
On Sunday, Allawi travelled to Istanbul for talks with Turkish prime minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu amid increasingly
strained relations between Iraq's Shia-led government and neighbouring Turkey.
The visit came amid reports that Turkey, which also fears Iran's increasing
influence in Iraq, is pushing Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds, also Sunni Muslims, to
forge a political alliance to counter Al-Maliki's ruling Shia coalition.
Such high-level treatment of one of Al-Maliki's rivals and rumbling about a
possible new alliance have irked Iraq's Shia authorities, leading Baghdad to
warn Ankara against meddling in Iraq's internal affairs.
On the surface, Allawi's attempts to prevent the new US ambassador in Baghdad
from moving closer to Al-Maliki and the moves by Iraqi Sunni leaders to enlist
the support of neighbouring Sunni countries seem separable.
But a closer reading reveals that this is a double-track strategy aimed at
bringing Washington and the Sunni countries closer together as part of efforts
to increase the pressure on both Al-Maliki and Iran.
As a result of a push from outside, Allawi's logic goes, Al-Maliki will be
further isolated and there will be a window of opportunity for Iraq's Sunnis to
take back their control over the country's central government.
However, things are yet more complicated. With deadlock over a proposed
national conference to end the current political and sectarian disputes, Iraq
is entering a new phase in its lingering crisis, and it would be a mistake to
believe that a breakthrough can come about through foreign pressure alone.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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