PM al-Sudani reshuffles top intelligence, national security positions

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani has announced major reshuffles in the country’s top intelligence and security positions as part of “administrative reform” of the security institutions, the government announced.   

The changes have been made in the National Security Agency and Intelligence Service, the Iraqi News Agency said on Wednesday, citing an informed source. 

Hamid al-Shatri, the head of the National Security Agency, has been replaced by Abu Ali al-Basri, according to state media. 

The second deputy position of the Agency has been reshuffled as well, appointing  Faleh al-Issawi as the new deputy instead of Muthanna al-Obaidi, according to the report.

Waqas Mohammad is now heading the Iraqi Intelligence Service instead of Majid al-Dulaimi, the report added. 

Both Hamid al-Shatri and Majid al-Dulaimi have been transferred to the National Security Advisory.

The changes are “in line with the government's administrative reform of security institutions,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the security forces, and Yehia Rasool, the military spokesperson of the premier, announced in a statement on Wednesday. 

Since his inauguration in October, al-Sudani has made a number of changes in senior government positions, some of which had been slammed by his critics for being “politically motivated.”

A court order in late-June froze the personal assets of former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, charging the ex-official with “financial irregularities.”

A number of top government officials from Kadhimi’s cabinet had been either sacked or retired on the ground of "corruption."

Arrest warrants and asset-freezing orders have been issued against a number of ex-cabinet ministers and officials, including the former minister of finance and Kadhimi’s chief of staff, among others.

Allegations of corruption are often believed to be weaponized against political rivals in the country. Iraq is ranked at the very bottom of Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, placing at 178 out of 180.

“Fighting corrupt people is not easy; sometimes, it is more difficult than fighting ISIS,” Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said earlier this year at a panel in the US.