Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, who is simultaneously the secretary-general of the pro-Iranian Islamic Da‘wah Party, accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting militant groups inside Iraq and across the Middle East, allegedly to commit acts of terrorism against Baghdad. Ironically, the bombastic pronouncement invoked memories of the previous dictator, Saddam Hussain. Like his predecessor, Al Maliki charged Riyadh and Doha of declaring war on his country, even if this was nothing more than the figment of his imagination.
In power on and off since 2006, and embroiled for most of this time in unending internal disputes that cost the lives of nearly 1,000 Iraqis every month, Al Maliki prepares for the April 2014 parliamentary elections with a convenient accusation that overlooks the ongoing bloodletting. In fact, his utter failure to meet the widespread discontent among the country’s Sunni Arab minority is only surpassed by Baghdad’s pro-Iranian policy preferences and, equally important, by the backing he offered President Bashar Al Assad in the civil war underway in neighbouring Syria.
It is worth remembering that this is not the first time Al Maliki has blamed unnamed regional countries for allegedly destabilising Iraq, though this was his most blatant accusation against Riyadh and Doha. In January 2014, Al Maliki pointed to “diabolical” and “treacherous” Arab governments for the upsurge of violence, though he then refrained from identifying the supposed perpetrators of such treachery.
The curtain fell a few days ago, with the characteristic strongman rhetoric that asserted Saudi and Qatari assistance to Sunni Iraqis to incite the latter to reject every internal effort at reconciliation. “They are attacking Iraq, through Syria and in a direct way, and they announced war on Iraq, as they announced it on Syria, and unfortunately it is on a sectarian and political basis,” he declared, concluding that Saudi Arabia and Qatar “were primarily responsible for the sectarian and terrorist and security crisis of Iraq.”
Naturally, Saudi Arabia slammed Al Maliki’s pronouncements as being “aggressive and irresponsible,” as it reminded the Iraqi prime minister of the kingdom’s clear policies against all acts of global terrorism. A high-ranking official told the Saudi Press Agency: “Instead of making haphazard accusations, the Iraqi prime minister should take measures to end the chaos and violence that swamp Iraq,” which is certainly a sound recommendation.
Few deny that Iraq was caught in the vortex of sectarian policies that granted privileges to its Shiite majority while a disgruntled Sunni minority saw its influence wane after 2003. In fact, Baghdad seldom shied from launching sustained attacks against Sunnis, best illustrated by the May 2008 ‘Operation Umm Al Rabi’ayn’ in Mosul that ostensibly targeted Al Qaida’s network in that city, or the series of clashes that followed the December 20, 2011 arrest warrant against the Sunni Vice-President Tarek Al Hashemi, who fled the country after Al Maliki accused him of terrorism and of running death squads.
Regrettably, human rights violations continued, as Al Maliki successfully muzzled the judiciary too. Security forces continued to arbitrarily detain and torture journalists and political activists and Baghdad imposed the death penalty on at least 129 people in 2012 — almost double the 2011 figure of 68 — which reminded observers of the previous dictatorship. Indeed, this proven method to silence political opponents surprised few, although many hoped that Iraq had shed its dictatorial cloak.
According to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), defendants seldom received fair trials, which was as clear a pronouncement of poor human rights conditions as possible. In this respect, Al Maliki’s Iraq resembled Saddam Hussain’s, as security forces responded to peaceful protests with intimidation, threats, violence, and arbitrary arrests, and held many in secret jails without any accountability whatsoever.
To be sure, Iraq’s doldrums are the results of long isolation, followed by several wars that scarred its population. Still, Baghdad cannot now blame outsiders for deteriorating political and economic circumstances, with chaotic security conditions and nearly six million Iraqis living below the poverty line. Its own sectarian preferences failed to end Al Qaida and/or Shiite militias from engaging in violence that witnessed a car bombing, assassination, kidnapping or even a prison break almost on a daily basis. Lawlessness was rampant and may have reached comical levels as the son of the Iraqi Transport Minister boldly prevented the landing of a scheduled air service from Beirut, which was forced to return to the Lebanese capital mid-flight just because he missed it. Although Minister Hadi Al Amiri apologised and vowed that such acts of nepotism would no longer be tolerated, rampant corruption continues, even at the apex of power.
Amazingly, as the Iraqi parliament voted on January 26, 2013 to prohibit any prime minister from running for a third term, Al Maliki had no compunction to coerce an Iraqi court to reject the so-called “3-Term Law” for being unconstitutional, which stood as a clear sign of legal manipulation so that he could retain his post.
In launching his latest diatribe against Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Al Maliki more or less confirmed King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz’s suspicions, expressed in confidence to the American Ambassador in Riyadh and which were described in a leaked March 2009 diplomatic cable. At the time, the patient monarch apparently told his guest that he had “no confidence whatsoever in [Al] Maliki,” and may have even refused former president George W. Bush’s entreaties to meet the Iraqi and forge a new relationship.
In the event, such a meeting occurred early in Al Maliki’s term when the Iraqi gave the Saudi monarch a written list of commitments for reconciliation, though he failed to follow through on any of them. President Barack Obama may revisit this issue in a few weeks time when he visits the kingdom. He should not be surprised to hear the king repeat what he told his predecessor: “I do not trust this man [Al Maliki]... he is an Iranian agent.”
Dr Joseph A. Kechichian is the author of Legal and Political Reforms in Saudi Arabia (London: Routledge, 2013).
