A Soft Coup in Baghdad: Background on Parliamentary Tension Over Security Ministries

Baghdad - Special Report:

The Iraqi Parliament witnessed a dramatic shift yesterday after the new Prime Minister, Ali Al-Zaidi, succeeded in passing only 14 ministers of his government cabinet, while sharp disagreements left 9 ministerial portfolios vacant, led by the sovereign Ministries of Interior and Defense. The charged atmosphere inside the dome did not stop at political debate, but escalated into altercations and physical shoving among MPs following mutual vetoes on the proposed names. Shiite forces close to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF/Hashd) and Nouri al-Maliki sought to secure an allied figure for the Ministry of Interior and choose a flexible Sunni name for the Ministry of Defense (from the Azm Coalition), which was met with categorical rejection, leading to the adjournment of the session without completing the security ministries.

This parliamentary deadlock triggered a wave of rapid reactions today. Falih al-Fayyadh (Head of the PMF) officially announced the withdrawal of his bloc and MPs from Al-Sudani's political coalition supporting the government. This has placed Al-Zaidi's nascent government in an early legitimate and political dilemma, making it appear "paralyzed" before it even begins.

Concurrently with this split, the most prominent stance came from Mohammad Naji, the political advisor to the Badr Organization, who described what happened in the session as a clear attempt to execute a "soft coup" and hijack the political process.

The real danger now lies in the fact that leaving the Ministries of Interior and Defense suspended could open the door for passing new figures backed and accepted by Washington in the future. This would mean initiating the implementation of strict international conditions under soft slogans such as "integrating the Hashd" and "restricting weapons to the state"—which resistance factions view as an existential threat to their entity and an attempt to strip them of their security and financial influence through the gateway of the new government.

This latest development strikes at the core of the cohesion of the "Coordination Framework" and the Shiite house, which has long tried to appear as a solid and unified bloc in the face of crises. Today, the Shiite component is clearly divided into two camps:

A financial and economic camp including (Al-Zaidi, Al-Sudani, and a faction of Asa'ib), which sees the necessity of appeasing America to avoid sanctions and rescue the economy.

A conservative traditional wing represented by the "Framework hawks" such as (Al-Maliki, Al-Amiri, and Al-Fayyadh), which views this concession as a direct exclusion of its political and security influence and a stripping of its historical power centers.

This sharp and public division over the sharing of influence could open the door in the future to deeper and more dangerous tensions on the Iraqi street than a mere fistfight inside the halls of parliament.

#Iraq #Coordination_Framework #AlZaidi_Government

#Dissolving_the_Hashd #Integrating_the_Hashd #Soft_Coup

#Iraqi_Parliament