DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE NOMINATION: MALIKI REFUSES TO MEET TRUMP’S ENVOY IN BAGHDAD DESPITE AL-SUDANI’S ATTEMPT
Information obtained by Network 964 indicates that developments are escalating in the case of withdrawing Nouri al-Maliki’s nomination for the premiership, with a meeting between al-Maliki and Barak proving impossible.
Network 964 learned from political sources that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani offered to mediate a meeting between prime ministerial candidate Nouri al-Maliki and Tom Barrack, the envoy of US President Donald Trump, who arrived in Baghdad this evening on a visit that was not previously announced, coinciding with the intensification of the prime minister crisis, and the demands of several forces, including the Asaib Ahl al-Haq movement and the Hikma movement, for al-Maliki to withdraw after the American warning issued by Trump four days after al-Maliki’s nomination.
According to sources close to the State of Law Coalition, Maliki rejected the request made by Sudani to bring Maliki together with Trump’s envoy. According to the coalition’s spokesman, Aqeel al-Fatlawi, Maliki is waiting for “clarifications from the Iraqi ambassador in Washington, Nizar al-Khairallah,” who is said to be carrying clarifications regarding the true American position on Maliki’s candidacy and the circumstances surrounding Trump’s tweet. Maliki believes that it was driven by internal and external parties, and he is trying to avoid any direct contact with an American figure before he personally ascertains the nature of the American position beyond what is being circulated.
According to the sources, Maliki has been refusing for weeks to attend the framework meetings or discuss any other scenario that would call for his withdrawal. His atmosphere is repeating one call, as he personally expressed it in his only interview on February 3, when he said that he was nominated by the framework and that he would not withdraw, but rather the framework should withdraw his nomination if it wished.
The opposition forces are demanding that Maliki withdraw in order to avoid embarrassing all the leaders of the Shiite forces and forcing them to withdraw Maliki’s nomination in response to American pressure, while Maliki’s supporters respond that he is not prepared to bear this embarrassment, that he is ready to face all pressures, and that the framework should back down if it wants, without forcing Maliki to appear in a position of retreat.
