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Iraqi Leaders Elect Former Foe of Hussein as President Iraq Picks New President to Confront Militant Threat
(about 11 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s leaders selected Fouad Massoum, a longtime Kurdish politician and former guerrilla fighter who took up arms against Saddam Hussein’s regime, on Thursday as the country’s new president, an important step in forming a new government that the international community and Iraq’s religious authorities have called for and described as crucial to confronting a growing Sunni insurgency. BAGHDAD — Trying to piece together a new government to confront a Sunni militant offensive and growing internal strains, Iraqi leaders on Thursday selected a well-regarded Kurdish politician to be the country’s new president.
Mr. Massoum, 76, replaces Jalal Talabani, who has been president since 2005 and was seen as a rare unifying figure among Iraq’s many factions but has been largely absent from the political scene since suffering a stroke in late 2012. The Kurds settled on Mr. Massoum after a late-night meeting Wednesday in Baghdad. After two rounds of voting in Parliament on Thursday, Mr. Massoum received 211 votes out of 269 cast and was immediately sworn in. Though the post is largely ceremonial, Iraqi officials said the choice was a vital step to try to ease the growing distrust between the country’s northern Kurdish population and the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad and present a more united front against the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The next political step, the selection of a new prime minister, will be more difficult and fraught, especially as violent attacks are killing civilians on a daily basis and Sunni militants led by the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, are consolidating their control of large parts of the north and west of Iraq. That process will determine the future of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has been in power since 2006 but who has become an increasingly polarizing figure as the insurgency has grown, setting off new rounds of sectarian violence. Yet even as the government is trying to rally, the Sunni militants are consolidating their grip over a broadening portion of the map. Along with the nuts and bolts of traditional governance, like paving neglected roads, ISIS is also employing violence and intimidation in the quest to create a hard-line Islamist caliphate.
Mr. Maliki has insisted that he will seek a third term as prime minister, but it appears increasingly unlikely that his efforts to remain in power will succeed. American officials, who believe Mr. Maliki has become too divisive to lead Iraq out of its current crisis, have been working behind the scenes to push Iraq’s leaders to select someone else. On Thursday, militants destroyed a shrine in Mosul that was said to be the tomb of the prophet Jonah, and there have been increasing reports of public executions. Reports also surfaced of an edict ordering women and girls to undergo genital mutilation in ISIS-held territory, though some Mosul residents said they had seen no evidence it was being enforced, and some militant-affiliated social media accounts denied it.
Other powerful factions appear arrayed against Mr. Maliki, as well. Iran, which exerts enormous influence here, has signaled that it would like to see new leadership, as have Iraq’s powerful Shiite religious leaders and other political factions, Sunnis and Kurds but also many among the Shiite majority. The starkly divergent scenes — of a political class in the capital struggling to make the country whole, and militants taking every measure to carve it up — presented a picture of a country in chaos just as President Obama is set to weigh recommendations by the Pentagon for possible military action, which could include airstrikes, either by drones or warplanes.
Before the vote for president, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, appeared at a news conference in Baghdad and said, “Iraq is facing an existential threat but it can be overcome through the formation of a thoroughly inclusive government — a government that can address the concerns of all communities, including security, political, social and economic matters.” Six weeks after ISIS seized Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, there is a growing sense that much of the country, even if it does not break into three nations — a Kurdish state in the north, a largely Shiite area in the central area and south and a Sunni state in the west — is likely to remain beyond the control of a Baghdad government for some time.
For one day at least, even as violence continued to engulf the country, Iraqi leaders celebrated their selection of a new president. In testimony before the Senate on Thursday, Brett McGurk, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran and Iraq, portrayed an increasingly decentralized Iraqi government as the most likely way forward. “There is a recognition in Iraq that from the center out you’re never going to fully control all of these areas, and particularly given the capacity of ISIL,” he said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.
“Everyone likes him,” Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite lawmaker, said of Mr. Massoum. “He is a moderate man and was agreed to by everyone.” He added that Mr. Massoum is “a man who refuses divisions, and this is what we look for in the Iraqi president.” Iraq’s leader, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, has been pressing for increased military aid, from the United States and elsewhere.
Mr. Massoum’s rise to the presidency comes a week after Parliament elected Salim al-Jubouri, a moderate Sunni Islamist, to the position of speaker, which was the first step in forming a new government after national elections in April. The selection of Mr. Massoum, who holds a doctorate in Islamic philosophy and helped draft Iraq’s new Constitution after the American-led invasion, was seen as another important step in establishing a new, inclusive government. Hundreds of American military advisers are now staffing two operations centers in Iraq, and American military planes are flying 50 surveillance flights a day through Iraqi airspace. On Thursday, Mr. Maliki met in Baghdad with Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the head of the United States Central Command, and dispatched his defense minister to Russia to seek more military aid. Iranian military advisers are also said to be operating in Iraq, and organizing Shiite militias.
“This is for sure a great achievement,” said Hashim al-Hashimi, a political analyst. “Now the road is paved to nominate the prime minister and form the government.” In Baghdad, for one day at least, even as violence continued to engulf the country and just before the nearly weeklong holiday for Eid al-Fitr, the celebration at the conclusion of Ramadan, Iraqi leaders celebrated their selection of a new president on Thursday.
He said Mr. Massoum and the new speaker were “well-known and acceptable by everyone inside the political process and outside.” The Parliament voted to approve Fouad Massoum, 76, a Kurdish politician and former guerrilla fighter against Saddam Hussein’s regime, as the country’s new president. He replaces Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who had been president since 2005 and was seen as a rare unifying figure among Iraq’s many factions but has been largely absent from the political scene since suffering a stroke in late 2012.
Under an informal political bargain forged after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi presidency is held by a Kurd, the speaker of Parliament is a Sunni Arab and the position of prime minister, the most powerful post, goes to a Shiite. “Everyone likes him,” Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite lawmaker, said of Mr. Massoum. “He is a moderate man and was agreed to by everyone.”
As if to emphasize the challenges the country faces, hours before Parliament voted on the presidency on Thursday, an attack on a convoy of prisoners near Baghdad left more than 60 people dead. And in Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, ISIS militants ordered all girls and women in around the area to undergo female genital mutilation, Reuters reported. Jacqueline Badcock, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in the Kurdish city of Erbil that the requirement was a “grave concern” and could affect as many as four million people, according to Reuters. A week before, Parliament elected Salim al-Jubouri, a moderate Sunni Islamist, to the position of speaker, which was the first step in forming a new government after national elections in April. Under an informal political bargain forged after the toppling of Mr. Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi presidency is held by a Kurd, the speaker of Parliament is a Sunni Arab and the position of prime minister, the most powerful post, goes to a Shiite.
At dawn on Thursday, a convoy of prisoners left a prison on a military base in Taji, north of the capital, on its way to a more secure prison in Baghdad when it was struck by several explosions, according to a security official. The explosions were followed by a gunfight between militants and the men guarding the convoy, the official said. The official added that at least 54 prisoners were killed in the exchange, as well as seven Iraqi soldiers. Another official, though, who works in the Taji prison, said the inmates were executed after they left the facility. The next political step, the selection of a new prime minister, will be more fraught. That process will determine the future of Mr. Maliki, who has been in power since 2006 but who has become an increasingly polarizing figure as the insurgency has grown and sectarian violence has intensified to a level not seen since 2006 and 2007.
The attack was similar to two cases last month, which took place in murky circumstances but are regarded as some of the worst recent sectarian abuses carried out by the Shiite-dominated government or affiliated militias, in which dozens of Sunni prisoners held on terrorism charges were killed. Hours before Parliament voted on the presidency on Thursday, an attack on a convoy of prisoners near Baghdad killed more than 60 people. Later, two car bombs struck a street in central Baghdad packed with restaurants and cafes just as residents were breaking their Ramadan fast. Nearly two dozen people were killed.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in those attacks, inmates were executed by either Shiite militiamen or government security forces. One incident, at a jail in Baquba, northeast of the capital, left 44 Sunni prisoners dead. In the other incident, near Hilla, south of Baghdad, nearly 70 prisoners were executed on the side of a highway, four security sources said at the time. The dawn attack on the convoy was similar to two cases last month, which took place in murky circumstances but are regarded as some of the worst recent sectarian abuses carried out by the Shiite-dominated government or affiliated militias.
In a recent report, Human Rights Watch said that at least 255 prisoners in six Iraqi cities had been executed in recent weeks. Mr. Maliki has insisted that he will seek a third term, but he faces an array of opponents and has lost support from abroad. American officials, who believe he has become too divisive to lead the nation out of its current crisis, have been working behind the scenes to push Iraq’s leaders to select someone else. And Iran, which exerts enormous influence here, has signaled it would like to see new leadership.
“The mass extrajudicial killings may be evidence of war crimes or crimes against humanity, and appear to be revenge killings for atrocities” committed by Sunni militants, the group said in its report. Last week several Iranian officials, including Ali Shamkhani, a top national security official, visited the holy city of Najaf, in southern Iraq, and conveyed to religious leaders that Iran would prefer that Mr. Maliki be replaced, according to a senior Shiite lawmaker in Baghdad.
But even if Mr. Maliki were replaced, there is little sense that the Iraqi political class would be able to establish a new political bargain that could bring peace. “There’s no glue to hold whatever grandiose governing coalition that emerges together,” said Ramzy Mardini, an Iraq expert and fellow at the Atlantic Council. He added, “the idea that if Maliki should leave and then we’d be on the path of reconciliation and compromise is wishful thinking.”