Spokesperson: Coalition between Maliki, Sadr 'unlikely'

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Political Bureau of Iraqi election winner Muqtada al-Sadr says a possible coalition with the Head of the State of Law faction, Nouri al-Maliki, is not possible as they hold him responsible for the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State (IS) in 2014.

Dhiya al-Assadi, Head of Sadr’s Political Bureau, said in a statement on Wednesday that forming a coalition with Maliki is unlikely because he holds legal responsibility for what happened in Mosul and other Iraqi cities due to his role as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces at the time.

Assadi stated that Sadr had made more than one attempt to present projects aimed at building a fair state, noting it remains unclear whether Maliki’s faction will get any ministerial positions as the decision is not up to the Sairoon Coalition, which won the majority of votes in the May 12 elections.

According to Assadi, Maliki must first reveal the people involved in the fall of Mosul and hold them accountable for all the bloodshed, the lands occupied, and properties destroyed before an alliance is considered with his party.

“One of [Sadr’s] attempts is to create a technocrat-based committee to elect ministers to replace the ones in [Haider al-Abadi’s] cabinet,” he said, adding due to personal and political interests by decision makers, these plans were never implemented.

On June 23, Iraq’s parliamentary election winner Sadr and current Prime Minister Abadi announced that their political blocs would form an alliance.

Earlier this month, Sairoon and Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi’s al-Fatih Coalition, who finished runners-up in the polls, said they had reached an agreement to create the largest alliance in the next Iraqi Parliament.

Article Credit: Kurdistan24.net (Special Thanks to Charles Bright)