Barham Salih’s Resignation Game Amid Iraq Crisis: Goals, Influences

Alwaght– Three months after the eruption of Iraq’s street protests, the country is still a scene to a political crisis. The persistence of the demonstrations forced Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to resign. And recently, President Barham Salih presented his resignation to the parliament. His threatening on December 26 to resign drew a wave of reactions among the political parties.

His resignation raised a set of questions. How serious is it? How will it affect future political equations in the country?

What are Salih’s reasons to step down? Is his decision serious? 

Salih’s letter of resignation to the parliament is more a threat trying to get the lawmakers to agree with his style of administration and thought than a real stepping down. Over the past two months, heeding to the protestors’ demands and accepting their favorite choice for the PM post has been a cliché for all of the Iraqi politicians. During this time, when a party named a choice to fill the post, all asserted that the choice should win the approval of the protestors. Salih rejected Asaad Abdulamir al-Idani, the current Basra province governor, presented by Al-Banaa Coalition as the majority bloc of the parliament, sending a letter of readiness to resign to the parliament. Referring to the three-months-long demonstrations in the country, in his letter he described the situation in Iraq as historic and sensitive, adding that he would refrain from naming the al-Banaa candidate as the PM for the sake of stability of the country to avoid bloodshed and support the civil peace.

Salih highlighted article 67 of the constitution reminding all of the president’s responsibility to save the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, adding that naming al-Idani is contrary to the national constitution. “I declare my readiness to resign from the presidency to the members of the parliament so that it makes the appropriate decision as the representation of the people.”

The resignation of Salih is not comparable to the resignation of Abdul Mahdi. In his letter to the parliament, two points can be regarded: on the one hand, he seeks to threaten the political parties with his resignation and on the other hand he wants to persuade the parties interested in his stay to yield to his demands.

These points regarded, his resignation should not be deemed as a serious move mainly because he is almost sure that the lawmakers will not accept his stepping down.

170 parliamentarians in a statement urged Salih to withdraw his quitting decision. They asked him not to even think about resigning. They called on all to support Salih’s choices and demands for naming nationally agreed-upon figure for the PM post. This indicates how politically-motivated the Salih’s resignation letter was.

What are the influences of a possible approval of Salih’s resignation on Iraq’s developments? 

The resignation of Salih in the present conditions will transfer his legal power to pick a new PM to the parliament speaker, Mohamed al-Halbousi. Having in mind that al-Halbousi is himself part of the Al-Banaa bloc led by Hadi al-Amiri, his resignation approval seems to accelerate the process of choosing a successor to Adel Abdul Mahdi. Regardless of the legal aspect of the process, a continuation of the resignations in the current conditions will cause issues to the Iraqi leaders. For example, the resignation of Salih will trigger disputes among various Kurdish political actors, something making PM choosing a long process. According to political power-sharing system, the president of the country should be a Kurd.

Should the parliament approves Salih’s resignation, an intra-Kurdish crisis can be expected over his successor. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party engaged in severe political competition before they agreed on Barham Salih last year. Such a challenge will add a serious new twist to the already-complicated problems while the country at present needs national unity. With these all, the resignation of the president is highly unlikely to reach the stage of realization.