Pompeo speaks with Halbousi amid ongoing problems in Iraq

Halbousi was backed by Iran in his bid for the speakership, and he defeated the former Iraqi Defense Minister, Khalid al-Obeidi, whom the US had supported.

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on Wednesday with Mohammed Halbousi, the newly-elected speaker of the Iraqi parliament.

Pompeo congratulated Halbousi and “underlined” that the US “looks forward to working with him in this most important new role,” according to a State Department read-out of their telephone conversation.

Pompeo’s call follows pro-Iranian statements that Halbousi made after winning the speakership on Saturday: Iraq should not abide by the sanctions on Iran, and that he would invite his Iranian counterpart to Baghdad to issue a joint statement to that effect.

Although a Sunni Arab, Halbousi ran for parliament on the pro-Iranian Fatih (Conquest) list, which is dominated by the leaders of the Shia militias that have arisen in Iraq over the past four years, as the country battled the so-called Islamic State (IS.)

Halbousi was backed by Iran in his bid for the speakership, and he defeated the former Iraqi Defense Minister, Khalid al-Obeidi, whom the US had supported.

There also occurred on Wednesday an event antithetical to Pompeo’s call to Halbousi: A group of young men from his own tribe—Al Halabsa—held a large gathering in Anbar Province, where Halbousi had formerly been governor, and they issued a scathing statement against him.

It noted that immediately after becoming Speaker of Parliament, Halbousi had called for lifting international sanctions on “the Iranian Safavi enemy,” while the statement denounced him as a “traitor.”

Entifadh Qanbar, an Iraqi-American who heads the Future Foundation in Washington and who distributed the statement, asked why Pompeo would “take an extra step and make a phone call to Halbousi to congratulate him.”

According to the State Department’s read-out, Pompeo also “pledged to continue to stand with Iraqis, as they pursue security, prosperity, and stability.”

The Secretary also “emphasized his support for Iraq’s territorial integrity and sovereignty” and “noted his support for Iraq’s efforts to form a moderate, nationalist, Iraqi government, pursuant to the constitutional timeline, that is responsive to the aspirations of the Iraqi people.” 

The statement, however, appeared at sharp odds with the picture of Iraq that was presented at a Hudson Institute seminar, also on Wednesday, by two Iraqi-Americans who travel frequently to the area.

Ahmed Ali is at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he is Program Officer and Director of its Iraq Program.

Ali, who had just returned from Iraq, suggested that there is “a major crisis for the political system” that includes a fundamental question about its “legitimacy.” 

“I don’t think the majority of Iraqis would see elections, or politics in general, as a conducive avenue to address their grievances,” he said.

Omar al-Nidawi, Iraq Director at Gryphon Partners, concurred, explaining, “Iraq’s problem is to a great extent a crisis of credibility and legitimacy of the current political order.”

As the discussion was opened to questions from the audience, Kurdistan 24 noted that they had presented a “very grim view of Iraq,” contrasting it with the optimism of the George W. Bush administration that the war in Iraq would be easy and that it would precipitate the democratic transformation of the Middle East.

Anis Ibrahim is a self-described “social media influencer,” with whom young Iraqis have spent 300 million hours of engagement, as he told the Hudson Institute seminar, and he receives over 1,000 messages a day from them.

“Actually, Iraq is worse than what we listened to,” Ibrahim said, because, “we think Iraq is a functioning, real country with democracy, and it’s not.”

Noting that the US had been engaged in Iraq for over 15 years, Kurdistan 24 asked whether the US should keep muddling through or try a different approach?

“If there is anything the US can do,” Nidawi replied, it is “to acknowledge the problems, not hope for small problems to go away on their own, but rather to address them head-on.”

“When it is grim, we have to say it’s a bad situation,” Ali added in agreement. “Clearly, the US government has to look at it the same way.”

“We should be honest with ourselves,” he continued, “if we really want some good solutions.”

Editing by Nadia Riva