Exclusive: Shiite factions fight over sensitive security posts, consider dismissing al-Fayyadh

Shafaq News/ Influential parties of the Shiite Coordination Framework are haggling over critical security posts in the Iraqi state, sources familiar with the matter reported on Friday.

Last week, Iraq's parliament elected Abdullatif Rashid as president, and he then named Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani as prime minister-designate. Al-Sudani, who now is tasked with forming a cabinet, is the nominee of the Coordination Framework, powerful Shiite clergyman Muqtada al-Sadr's chief rival. Amid a year of political turmoil and three years after the protests erupted, Iraqis' grievances remain largely unaddressed.

The Coordination Framework nominated al-Sudani in July, when tensions were particularly high with the Sadrists. The broader Iraqi public was not in favor of the nomination, as it contravened the spirit of elections and democracy for the biggest wining bloc to be out and others who did not win to take their place and form the government. Iran’s support for the Coordination Framework also loomed large. However, since then, al-Sudani has grown on political actors, the international community and, to some extent, the Iraqi public as they learn more about him. He has conveyed messages about forming a capable government that would improve services, protect Iraq’s sovereignty, respond to the protesters’ demands, cooperate regionally and internationally, tackle climate change and address other issues.

Some foreign diplomats have met with him already, even before the vote of confidence, a sign that the international community is keen on the government formation moving forward. However, it seems that internal disagreements inside the Coordination Framework, supposedly al-Sudani's political cushion, will impede this progress.

Multiple sources from inside the Shiite forces consortium cited harbingers of a conflict between Hadi al-Ameri's Badr Organization, Nouri Al-Maliki's State of Law, and a third force within the Coordination Framework, over the Ministry of Interior.

A similar conflict is lingering between Ahmed al-Jubouri and the head of al-Azm alliance Muthanna al-Samerrai over the Ministry of Defense.

It is noteworthy that the fate of both ministries, unlike the portfolios kept for al-Sudani to select the ministers, will be settled in accordance with the quota system.

The political agreement, according to the sources, propagated toward the national security agency and the Iraqi intelligence body. Qais al-Khazali's Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq movement said it would give up its ministerial share in exchange for the two posts. However, they collided with their allies in the Kata'ib Hezbollah movement, which created friction between the two Iran-backed factions.

Another source revealed that certain parties inside the Coordination Framework are lobbying for Abdul-Aziz al-Mohammadawi, aka al-Khal (the Uncle), for the chairmanship of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF) Commission in lieu of incumbent Falih al-Fayyadh. However, this proposal remains unpopular among the member parties of the Shiite alliance.