BAGHDAD (AP) — Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki expressed his defiance Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw Washington’s support for Iraq if he returns to power.
Al-Maliki, who was nominated last week by the country’s ruling political bloc to return as prime minister, said in a statement: “We reject the blatant American interference in Iraq’s internal affairs and consider it a violation of its sovereignty.”
Trump in a post on Tuesday on social media wrote: “The last time Maliki was in power, the country descended into poverty and total chaos,” adding: “Because of his crazy policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq, and if we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of success, prosperity or freedom.”
Washington has pushed Iraq to distance itself from Iran and considers al-Maliki too close to Tehran. His last term, which ended in 2014, also saw the rise of the Islamic State group, which seized large parts of the country.
Interim Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s list of candidates won the largest share of seats in November’s parliamentary elections. But he stepped aside earlier this month, making way for al-Maliki after the two competed for support in the Coordination Framework, a collection of Shiite parties that is the largest parliamentary bloc.
The cadre named al-Maliki as its nominee last week. A session of Parliament was scheduled to take place on Tuesday to elect a president, who will in turn appoint the prime minister, but the session was canceled due to a lack of quorum, with no alternative date set.
Al-Maliki said he would continue to run for prime minister “out of respect for the national will and the decision of the Coordination Framework.”
Prior to Trump’s statement, members of the Coordinating Framework had received a written message from US Charge d’Affaires Joshua Harris, in which he said “we remember the period of the previous governments led by Prime Minister Maliki negatively in Washington”. Two members of the Steering Committee confirmed to The Associated Press that they had received the message, a copy of which was widely circulated on social media.
“The selection of the prime minister-designate and other leadership positions is a sovereign decision of Iraq, and the United States will also make its sovereign decisions regarding the next government in accordance with US interests,” the message said.
A spokesman for the US embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s intervention in Iraqi politics came as he weighs new strikes on Iraq’s neighbor Iran. It also comes as the US has begun transferring Islamic State militants from detention facilities in Syria to those in Iraq.
Al-Sudani came to power with the support of the Coordination Framework in 2022, but during his first term he managed to balance relations with Iran and the US and prevented pro-Iranian militias from intervening in support of Iran during the Israel-Iran 12-day war last year.
Some of these militias have expressed support for al-Maliki.
Abu Alaa al-Walae, commander of the Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada militia, called Trump’s statement “blatant interference in Iraqi affairs,” adding that “the criminal Trump, who physically assassinated the victory leaders now wants to repeat the act by politically assassinating” al-Maliki.
During his first term, Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Iran’s powerful military leader, General Qassim Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, an umbrella group composed of a number of militias, including Iran-backed groups, formed to fight the Islamic State group.
Tamer Badawi, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London who specializes in Iraq, said al-Sudani may well have anticipated the rejection of al-Maliki’s nomination and pulled out as a political maneuver. This allows al-Maliki to “temporarily steal the limelight” while “the rival candidate’s path to office narrows under the weight of his domestic opponents and even stronger hostility from the Trump camp,” he said.
“Iraq cannot afford the economic consequences of Donald Trump carrying out his threats,” he said. These could include imposing sanctions and restricting Iraq’s access to its own supply of US dollars – Iraq’s foreign exchange reserves were housed at the US Federal Reserve.
But that “doesn’t automatically mean the race is now decided in Sudani’s favor,” Badawi said. “A third candidate emerging as a compromise choice remains one of the plausible outcomes.”
Despite the political tensions, the US and Iraq have continued to cooperate, most recently with an agreement to transfer some 7,000 unsuspecting IS members from Syrian prisons to Iraq. A new batch of prisoners was transferred on Wednesday, bringing the total to 821.