Al-Hayat reported that the Kurdish bloc considers the Kirkuk referendum to be a major condition for “its participation in the political process.” After an acute political crisis with Turkey over the issue of Kirkuk, the Iraqi vice-prime minister (representing the Kurdish bloc) Barham Salih warned the government from “placing obstacles” in the path of the application of the 140th article of the constitution.
The 140th article calls for a referendum that would give the residents of some areas in Iraq the choice to be affiliated with the Kurdistan region. Some of these areas (like Kirkuk) contain a clear Kurdish majority, but also a significant non-Kurdish minorities (mostly Arab and Turkmen) who fear that the inclusion of Kirkuk into Kurdistan is a first step in a project aiming for an independent Kurdish state.
Salih said that the application of the 140th article “is the major condition for the Kurdish coalition to participate in the political process and in the formation of the government.” What complicates matters further for Maliki is that several Arab parties have threatened similar measures if the application of the 140th article (as it stands) moves ahead.
On another front, The Sadrist bloc is also reconsidering its role in the “political process.” Az-Zaman is reporting, in both its editions, that tensions are mounting between the Sadrists on the one hand, and Maliki and his governing Shi'a bloc on the other. At the moment, two dossiers are straining relations between the Sadrists and al-Maliki: the ongoing battles in Diwaniya, aiming to uproot the Mahdi Army from the city; and Maliki’s opposition to an American withdrawal from Iraq.
Az-Zaman (Iraq edition) quoted a Sadrist leader threatening that the party: “will take a different position towards the political process if the transgressions (in Diwaniya) do not cease.”
Similarly, Muqtada al-Sadr criticized the Prime Minister for “neglecting the million-man march (held in Najaf to protest the American occupation)” and rejecting the idea of a scheduled US withdrawal from the country. According to Az-Zaman, the Sadrist movement is threatening to withdraw from the government due to Maliki’s statements. (IraqSlogger covered the Sadrist threat to withdraw earlier today.)
However, political sources also told Az-Zaman that these threats “are not serious” as the Sadrist Current is currently splintered into three distinct blocs: one that supports the government, another that is composed of the Sadrist deputies in the parliament, and a third, more radical bloc, represented by the Mahdi Army and led by Muqtada al-Sadr.
As if those developments were not enough trouble for Maliki, the government is also faced by similar threats from the Sunni bloc in the parliament. Az-Zaman and al-Hayat write that a strong current within the Sunni Tawafuq coalition is calling for a withdrawal from the government and the political process as a whole. (Slogger reported earlier on this development.)
While 'Adnan al-Dulaimi (leader of the Tawafuq bloc) affirmed that his party is not intending to abandon the political process, he also stated that not all parties within his coalition are in agreement over this issue. Dulaimi specifically referred to the Islamic Party (one of the major constituents of Tawafuq) who, Dulaimi said, is planning to form its own independent coalition in the parliament.
Trouble began when Maliki announced that certain deputies may be prosecuted for “being implicated in the violence” in Iraq. Deputies who may lose their parliamentary immunity belong mostly to the Tawafuq bloc and the Islamic party. The Islamic party considered these measures to be “unconstitutional” and “illegal” and officials of the party said that these measures (in addition to prior grievances) may lead them to “withdraw from the political process.”
Lastly, and for the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi Communist Party, Hamdi Abu Ihsan wrote an article in Az-Zaman recounting some of the history of the party and its role in Iraq’s politics.
Until the Ba'th became the official ideology of the state, the Iraqi Communist Party was, by far, the most popular party in Iraq (and one of the most popular parties in the Arab world). Some authors estimate that the party had over a quarter million supporters (between members and sympathizers) in the 1960s, when the official members of the Ba'th party numbered in the hundreds.
One of the main reasons for the alleged cooperation between US intelligence agencies and Iraq’s Ba'thists was to prevent the pro-Soviet communists from holding power in Iraq.
An interesting tale recounted by Ihsan pertains to how the US occupation viewed the Iraqis exclusively as members of their sects, not taking into account their complex individual identities and their ideological leanings. Ihsan claimed that Paul Bremer, when he met the secretary general of the Iraqi Communist Party, Hameed Majeed Musa, could only address Musa and deal with him as a “Shi'a,” despite the fact that Musa headed a secular Marxist party.
