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Sudani Cancels Privileges of Iraqi Presidents, PMs, Speakers

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (Reuters)
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Sudani Cancels Privileges of Iraqi Presidents, PMs, Speakers

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (Reuters)

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani issued a number of orders, including cancelling allocations to his office and the protection service provided to the former presidents, prime ministers and parliament speakers, in what seemed a shocking step to senior Iraqi officials.

According to an informed Iraqi source, all former presidents and premiers after 2003 were included in the decision. These include ex-presidents Fuad Masoum, and Barham Salih, as well as ex-prime ministers Ayad Allawi, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Nouri al-Maliki, Haider al-Abadi, Adel Abdul Mahdi and Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Political observers said these decisions could have negative impacts on the relation between Sudani and senior Iraqi officials and leaders.

Sudani further ordered cancelling the allocations provided to the three presidencies, including President Abdul Latif Rashid, Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and his office.

The source said that his decisions also included cutting 2.5 million dinars from the ministers’ salaries, in addition to canceling allocations to hospitality, treatment, and renting private planes for the three presidencies, including himself.

The PM aims through these decisions to reduce exaggerated government spending.

He banned granting MPs new cars, and this applies to high-ranking officials, including heads of agencies, undersecretaries of ministries, and ambassadors.

Local news agencies quoted a military commander in the Green Zone as saying that the force assigned to protect Kadhimi received orders to withdraw from its location near his house, yet most of the almost 100 security guards did not implement the sudden orders yet.

Unlike former premiers, Kadhimi had previously been subjected to several arrest attempts. Stripping him of protection seemed at first surprising before it became clear that it applies to all former presidents and prime ministers.

In this context, the political source said that Sudani also ordered the shutdown of 20 Iraqi embassies abroad due to the lack of Iraqi expatriates in these countries and the large sums spent on the embassies and their diplomatic staff.

The decision comes in line with the PM’s efforts to restructure the state institutions and limit the government spending. It also comes only a few days after he ordered removing the list of ambassadors prepared to a vote in the parliament.

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Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
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Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

A packed concert hall in Damascus came alive this week with cheers as Wasfi Maasarani, a renowned singer and symbol of the Syrian uprising, performed in celebration of “Syria’s victory."
The concert Wednesday marked Maasarani’s return to Syria after 13 years of exile. While living in Los Angeles, Maasarani had continued to support Syria’s uprising through his music, touring the US and Europe, The Associated Press said.
The concert organized by the Molham Volunteering Team, a humanitarian organization founded by Syrian students, also marked a month since a lightning insurgency toppled former President Bashar Assad.
Revolutionary songs like those by Maasarani and Abdelbasset Sarout — a Syrian singer and activist who died in 2019 — played a key role in rallying Syrians during the nearly 14-year uprising-turned civil war starting in 2011.
Many opponents of Assad's rule, like Maasarani, had fled the country and were unsure if they would ever be able to come back.
In the dimly lit concert hall, the crowd’s phone lights flickered like stars, swaying in unison with the music as the audience sang along, some wiping away tears. The crowd cheered and whistled and many waved the new Syrian flag, the revolutionary flag marked by three stars. A banner held up in the hall read, “It is Syria the Great, not Syria the Assad.”
One of Maasarani's best known songs is “Jabeenak ’Ali w Ma Bintal,” which he first sang in 2012, addressing the Free Syrian Army. It was a coalition of defected Syrian military personnel and civilian fighters formed in 2011 to oppose Assad during the civil war.
“You free soldier, the Syrian eminence appears in his eyes, he refused to fire at his people, he refused the shame of the traitor army, long live you free army, protect my people and the revolutionaries,” the lyrics read.
Another banner in the audience read, “It is the revolution of the people and the people never fail.”
Between performances, Raed Saleh, the head of the civil defense organization known as the White Helmets, addressed the crowd, saying, “With this victory, we should not forget the families who never found their children in the prisons and detention centers.”
Thousands were tortured or disappeared under Assad’s government. After the fall of Assad, the White Helmets helped in the search for the missing.
After the concert, Maasarani told The Associated Press, “It’s like a dream” to return to Syria and perform his revolutionary songs.
“We were always singing them outside of Syria, experiencing the happy and sad moments from afar,” he said, adding that his role was to capture the atrocities on the ground through song, ensuring “they would be remembered in history.” He reflected on his years in exile and recalled surviving two assassination attempts before leaving Syria.
“We have not seen this state without Assad since I was born,” said Alaa Maham, a concert attendee who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. “I cannot describe my feelings, I hope our happiness lasts.”
The future of Syria is still unclear, as the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, now the de facto ruling party, begins to form a new government and rebuild the country's institutions.
Whatever comes next, Maham said, “We got rid of the oppression and corruption with the fall of Assad and his family’s rule."