This articles was taken from our Iraq & Kurdistan Focus Publication. Contact us if you would like to receive a sample copy. It has been another difficult month for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is still struggling to find a way out of Iraq’s political crisis. Since February, when he announced his intention to form a government of technocrats, separate from the influence of the political blocs, al-Abadi has been locked in a fierce battle with his political counterparts that has brought the political scene to a near standstill.

This battle has been at its most bitter with those who make up al-Abadi’s own National Alliance. Apart from the Sadrists, who have been pressing hard for change, the members of the National Alliance have resisted all of the prime minister’s efforts to abandon the allocation system and form an independent government with candidates chosen according to experience and expertise rather than political affiliation.

Repeated attempts on al-Abadi’s part to reach some compromise solution have failed to move things forward. Both parliament and the government have been stalled since the end of April. The other blocs have repeatedly threatened to bring him and his government down through a no-confidence vote.

This month there were signs of a breakthrough. After a series of discussions with the National Alliance blocs, al-Abadi accepted the resignations of seven government ministers, which opened the way for replacements to be nominated.

Al-Abadi would not have dared to announce his acceptance of these resignations without prior agreement with the blocs. There was no significant objection from the other parties, implying that they have at least signalled their willingness for a new government to be appointed.

The resignations

Although al-Abadi accepted these resignations in July, six of the ministers in question had, in fact, already resigned earlier in the year.

Three, all from the Sadrist current, tendered their resignations in the first half of April in protest at al-Abadi’s slowness in appointing a technocrat government. They are housing and reconstruction minister Tariq al-Hikani, water resources minister Mehsin Shimmeri and industry and minerals minister Mohamed al-Daraji.

Oil minister Adel Abdulmehdi — who is from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) — had resigned in March, seemingly in anticipation of being pushed out on the grounds that he was not doing an adequate job.

It is not entirely clear why transport minister Baker Zubaidi, who is also from ISCI, resigned. It could well be because he was also accused of poor performance. It may also have been because ISCI wanted to be seen to be responding to popular demands for change.

One day after accepting these five resignations, al-Abadi also accepted that of higher education and scientific research minister Hussain al-Shahristani. Al-Shahristani, an independent who is very close to al-Abadi’s Al-Dawa party, resigned earlier in the year following calls for him to step down. His cause was not helped by allegations in April — published by Australia’s Fairfax Media in conjunction with the Huffington Post — that he was heavily involved in corruption during his time as oil minister (see Iraq & Kurdistan Focus April 2016). There was a general consensus that al-Shahristani should go.

The prime minister did not issue any official acceptance of these resignations at the time they were tendered, largely because he was still trying to finalise his discussions with the political blocs over what his next government would look like and how the new ministers would be appointed.

The resignations were overtaken by events when, under pressure from mounting protests in the streets, al-Abadi managed to get parliamentary approval for a partial cabinet reshuffle on 26 April.

This reshuffle was, however, quashed at the end of June when the federal court ruled that the parliamentary session at which the changes were approved had been unconstitutional, because a number of MPs had been prevented from entering the chamber to take part (see Iraq & Kurdistan Focus June 2016).

This ruling was a major blow for al-Abadi and forced him back to square one. His acceptance of these resignations in July should therefore be viewed as part of this process.

Interior minister resigns

Interior minister Mohamed Ghabbane, who is from the al-Badr Organisation, also stepped down in early July in response to the Karrada bombings on 3 July.

The Interior Ministry came under intense public criticism over the attack. In particular the civil defence force, which is part of the ministry, was accused of failing to reach the site of the bombing until several hours after the explosion. Ghabbane took the blame for the security failings that facilitated the explosion.

After announcing his resignation, Ghabbane launched a scathing attack on al-Abadi. In a statement he accused the prime minister of evading his responsibilities and of failing to delegate security duties. “The prime minister is responsible for the security file,” he said. “He issues orders and instructions for everything, large and small.” He also complained that there are too many security bodies and “no co-ordination between them”. Ghabbane added, “For one year and a half I kept reminding al-Abadi about our attempts in the ministry to improve security, but he didn’t care. He didn’t even bother to contact me [when I resigned] so I decided to tell people the truth.”