Iraqi parliament sacks Defense Minister

Parliament sacked the defense minister with a majority of 142 votes in favor while 102 MPs voted against the decision.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – On Thursday, the Iraqi parliament voted on withdrawal of confidence from the Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi.

Ashwaq Jaff, a Kurdish MP from the Iraqi parliament told Kurdistan24 on Thursday that parliament sacked the defense minister with a majority of 142 votes in favor while 102 MPs voted against the decision. 

Following the parliament decision, the sacked defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi stated on his official Facebook account that, "Finally the [corrupt] people who brought Iraqi situation to what it is like today have been victorious.”

He continued, “May the Iraqi people and the army forgive me because I tried to fight corruption with all possible means. But it seems that corrupt ones are stronger, their voices louder and their acts more effective.”

On August 1, the Iraqi parliament with the signatures of 60 MPs summoned Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi for investigations over corruption and during the session he named some current and former Sunni officials that according to him were involved in corruption and blackmailing him, including the parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri. 

Minister Obeidi had led the military campaign against the so-called Islamic State (IS) since the group emerged in the north of Iraq in June 2014 and occupied large swaths of territory in the country.

Obeidi’s removal largely weakens the weight of the Iraqi Sunni political parties in the government as they already complained about having less governmental posts and power in Baghdad, claiming it is controlled by Shia parties.

Iraq is suffering from political and economic turmoil at a time when the country is fighting against the biggest terrorist organization in the world that has controlled part of Iraq and Syria since 2014.

 

Editing by Ava Homa 

(Additional reporting by Mewan Dolamari)