ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Donald Trump’s policy for cooperation with Baghdad calls for an Iraqi government that can work “effectively and respectfully” with Washington, a US State Department official told Rudaw on Wednesday, asserting the US’s readiness to “use a full range of tools” to implement this policy and reiterating Trump’s warning against former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki (2006-2014) returning to premiership.
In a statement to Rudaw, the US official said the administration’s “policy towards Iraq requires an Iraqi government that is capable of working effectively and respectfully with the United States,” underling, “We are prepared to use the full range of tools to implement the President’s policy and have communicated this to Iraqi political leadership.”
The State Department official further reiterated President Trump’s previous remarks, stating, “Last time Maliki was in power, the country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again. Because of his extreme policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq and, if we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom.”
President Trump made the latter statement in a post on his Truth Social platform last week, seemingly vetoing Maliki’s nomination by Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework just days earlier.
Iraq held early legislative elections in mid-November. Shortly after, the Coordination Framework announced that it had formed the largest parliamentary bloc - a key step in nominating the country’s next prime minister - after its parties secured a combined 179 of the 329 seats in the legislature.
Since then, parties have been maneuvering to elect the country’s next president, who will then appoint a prime minister nominee selected by the largest bloc, in line with Iraq’s post-2003 informal power-sharing system, which allocates the parliament’s speakership to Sunni Arabs, the premiership to Shiite parties, and the presidency to Kurds.
Despite Trump’s remarks, the Coordination Framework on Saturday reaffirmed its support for Maliki, stressing that “choosing the prime minister is a purely Iraqi constitutional matter, conducted according to political process mechanisms that take national interest into account, away from external dictates.”
Nonetheless, in an interview with the local Al-Sharqiya News channel, the former premier, who also leads the State of Law coalition that won 29 seats in Iraq’s legislature in the November election, stated that he would respect any decision made within the Coordination Framework to withdraw his nomination.
"I respect differing viewpoints. If two-thirds of the parties [within the Coordination Framework] decide to replace me, I will accept the decision," he said.
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