Maliki pushed by his bloc to name son-in-law interior minister, spokesperson says

BAGHDAD — State of Law leader Nouri al-Maliki came under intense pressure from his own bloc to nominate his son-in-law, Yasser Sakhil al-Maliki, as interior minister, after initially backing Qasim Atta for the post, coalition spokesperson Aqeel al-Fatlawi said.

“I may face criticism for the information I am about to reveal. No one can imagine the extent of the pressure Mr. Nouri al-Maliki faced from all State of Law members to nominate Yasser al-Maliki,” Fatlawi told Al-Awla TV. Maliki had wanted to avoid criticism over family ties but eventually backed his son-in-law after repeated objections to Atta, he said, and coalition members supported Yasser for his “political and security experience,” including his closeness to Maliki during his two terms as prime minister. Atta was State of Law’s first choice in May but failed to win enough votes in parliament. Yasser al-Maliki was approved as interior minister on Thursday. A week earlier, Dawa Party figure Bilal al-Nasiri had complained that the party had no minister in the cabinet and so “no voice” in the devaluation decision.

Fatlawi also criticized the expansion of the cabinet. He was astonished by how Sadiqoun had defended the new deputy prime minister posts, he said, but State of Law’s objection was to a bloated government, not to whether the posts were constitutional. “Our objective is that government bloat will become a reality sooner or later,” he said. Similar pressures arose under Maliki’s premiership, he said, when several minister of state posts were created, including one for the government spokesperson, and some groups now resisted cuts because they would lose their only government posts, citing the Al-Asas bloc and the deputy premiership of its leader, Mohsen al-Mandalawi. “Mr. Maliki did not discuss whether the matter was legal or not. Rather, he was highlighting the damage caused by government bloat.”

Parliament on Thursday approved 11 ministers and three deputy prime ministers: Mandalawi, a former first deputy speaker; Mohammed Ali Tamim, a former deputy prime minister and planning minister; and Laith al-Khazali of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, who is under U.S. terrorism sanctions. The vote on a fourth deputy was postponed after Kurdistan Democratic Party lawmakers walked out.

Fatlawi also accused former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government of leaving an empty treasury. “Where has our money gone? Don’t you know where the money went? Didn’t the previous government, Sudani’s government, hand over an empty budget to Mr. al-Zaidi?” he said. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said this month that his government took office in May with public debt of more than 208 trillion dinars. Domestic debt alone rose by 15.6 trillion dinars in the first half of the year to about 106 trillion, most of it owed to the Central Bank, according to the bank’s figures, and Zaidi’s spokesperson, Haider al-Aboudi, has said Sudani’s 2023 decision to strengthen the dinar cost the treasury nearly 36 trillion dinars.