Extension of Iraqi PM’s Term Sparks Dispute within Coordination Framework

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi delivers a televised speech in Baghdad, Iraq August 30, 2022. (Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi delivers a televised speech in Baghdad, Iraq August 30, 2022. (Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via Reuters)
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Extension of Iraqi PM’s Term Sparks Dispute within Coordination Framework

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi delivers a televised speech in Baghdad, Iraq August 30, 2022. (Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi delivers a televised speech in Baghdad, Iraq August 30, 2022. (Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via Reuters)

The extension of the term of Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has sparked a sharp dispute within the Shiite pro-Iran Coordination Framework, revealed Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish sources.

Head of the Sadrist movement, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr supports the extension, while powers close to Iran are seeking to thwart the move.

A source from the Hikma movement, of Ammar al-Hakim, revealed that the Shiite forces are holding secret dialogue with Sadr ahead of the formation of a new government by the Framework and that they are seeking to nominate Kadhimi as its prime minister.

One movement in the Framework believes that proposing Kadhimi to head the new cabinet would make negotiating with Sadr much smoother, it added.

Supporters of the extension have been promoting the idea to Iranian factions to persuade them to go with it.

For the first time since the eruption of the crisis in Iraq in October 2021, activists in the Framework criticized Lebanese cleric Mohammed Kawtharani, Hezbollah’s official in charge of the Iraq file, over his role in promoting the extension.

Another influential Shiite figure, secretary of the Islamic Movement of Iraq, Shibl al-Zaidi, has also been criticized.

Zaidi had previously claimed that some political forces are hindering the Framework from coming up with a unified leadership and clear political vision.

Meanwhile, a senior political source revealed that Shiite forces affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have received clear messages that “Tehran rejects the eruption of intra-Shiite strife in Iraq.”

They also are “uncomfortable” with the formation of a government that Sadr opposes.

Such a scenario will transform Sadr into a “victor in his battle with the Framework,” explained the source.

This will prompt Shiite forces, including Sadr’s rival former PM Nouri al-Maliki, to work against the development of such a scenario

On the Kurdish front, leaders of the Kurdish Democratic Party have refrained from commenting on the possibility of extending Kadhimi’s term.

One of the officials said KDP leader Masoud Barzani favors a “lasting settlement that secures the country’s political and social stability.”



Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.