Iran Continues to Influence Iraq

Iran tries to control the appointment of Iraq's key cabinet posts
Iraqi lawmakers attend the first session of the Parliament after elections, in Baghdad, Iraq, September 3, 2018. File Photo EPA-EFE/STR
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Twice in the past week, the Iraqi parliament blocked the appointment of key ministerial posts by Iraq's new Prime Minister Dr. Adel Abdul Mahdi. The main sticking point with certain party is blocs in the parliament has been Mahdi's insistence on the appointment of Faleh al-Fayadh as Interior Minister. Major blocs like Saairun, supported by Muqtada al-Sadr, have walked out of the parliament, leaving it un-quorate each time Mahdi has tabled Faleh al-Fayadh's nomination. The issue has left the government in stalemate since the elections in May, with many politicians accusing Mahdi of backtracking on his pledge to appoint a cabinet of independent technocrats.
Opposition to al-Fayadh is not surprising. He was the brutal security adviser to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and masterminded the military assaults on the PMOI/MEK refugees in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, killing 168 defenseless men and women and wounding a further 1,700. His record of atrocities has earned him the accolade of an indictment by the Spanish Courts for crimes against humanity, limiting his ability to travel in Europe. Predictably, the venally corrupt and sectarian Maliki has openly rejected the Iraqi parliament's refusal to nominate al-Fayadh as Interior Minister and has thrown his support behind the pro-Iranian blocs in the dispute. Like his former boss Maliki, Fayadh is a puppet of the Iranian regime. On the orders of the mullahs in Tehran he led the ruthless Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces during the campaign to oust Daesh (ISIS) from Iraq, overseeing the almost complete destruction of the ancient cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul in the process and the genocidal ethnic cleansing of the Sunni population.