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ISCI/Da'wa alliance showing strain
September 17, 2008 | Posted by iraqologist@gmail.com - 7:40am | 23 Comments
An interesting article in Al-Hayat today points to more signs of ISCI frustration with Maliki’s strong man ambitions that Iraqologist suggested in earlier posts. At issue in this case are the tribal “Support Councils” Maliki has created throughout Iraq through the PM Office’s “Iraqi Follow-up Committee for National Reconciliation” (IFCNR – pronounced “ifkinar”). Maliki has created these councils over the past two years to co-opt local tribal leaders, secure their loyalty to the central government, and use their conferences as theatrical but basically substance-free media showpieces for everything his government is doing to promote “national reconciliation” among the tribes and between the tribes and the government. In many respects, you can look at these councils as government-sponsored competition with the Awakenings, i.e. a push to preempt extra-governmental tribal organization efforts and capture a little of that tribal magic in a bottle to the benefit of the government.
Now ISCI is coming out and claiming that Maliki is using these councils as a means of consolidating the Da’wa Party’s power in the southern provinces at the expense of the state’s. ISCI representative Taqi al-Din Mawla “warned against these councils being transformed into armed militias that take the place of the militias [that the government has already driven out]," and said that these councils “aim to strengthen the Da’wa Party’s base.” Badr leader Hadi al-Amiri (Badr is a branch of ISCI) claimed that IFCNR has created these Support Councils without coordinating with the provincial governments, who are legally responsible for local police and security forces, and that the Support Councils answer neither to MOI or even to the state. He said, “this raises suspicions about the Da’wa Party’s desire to impose its control over these [southern] areas before provincial elections.”
These charges seem perfectly plausible to Iraqologist and would be in line with Maliki’s efforts to consolidate his personal control in the security apparatus. Looks like ISCI’s getting increasingly peeved about this. I wonder where Iran stands?
Now ISCI is coming out and claiming that Maliki is using these councils as a means of consolidating the Da’wa Party’s power in the southern provinces at the expense of the state’s. ISCI representative Taqi al-Din Mawla “warned against these councils being transformed into armed militias that take the place of the militias [that the government has already driven out]," and said that these councils “aim to strengthen the Da’wa Party’s base.” Badr leader Hadi al-Amiri (Badr is a branch of ISCI) claimed that IFCNR has created these Support Councils without coordinating with the provincial governments, who are legally responsible for local police and security forces, and that the Support Councils answer neither to MOI or even to the state. He said, “this raises suspicions about the Da’wa Party’s desire to impose its control over these [southern] areas before provincial elections.”
These charges seem perfectly plausible to Iraqologist and would be in line with Maliki’s efforts to consolidate his personal control in the security apparatus. Looks like ISCI’s getting increasingly peeved about this. I wonder where Iran stands?
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