Iran Plays Religious Card in Iraqi Political Game

Iraqi Islamists claim Iran is pressuring them into backing Nouri Al-Maliki.

Iran has mounted its pressure on political Shi’ite elements in Iraq in a bid to support the candidacy of incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

An unnamed member of the Islamist Iraqi National Alliance (INA) told the Arab daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat that the Iranians were exerting pressure “on all fronts and with force, playing the sectarian Shia card, supporting Al-Maliki to remain in his position.”

According to the report, Muqtada Sadr, a member of the Iraqi National Alliance who is currently in exile in Iran, has repeatedly informed the Iranians of his refusal to accept Al-Maliki’s candidacy. However, the growing Iranian pressure may force Sadr to leave Iran and settle in Lebanon.

“The Iranian officials are exerting political and religious pressure to implement their agenda,” the anonymous source was quoted as saying in the report. “They are trying to influence clerics and Shi’ite religious figures, based on the notion that [Iyad ‘Alawi’s] ‘Iraqiya list is Sunni and Ba’athist, and the Shia must rule Iraq. [They believe] that if they lost the premiership this time, they will never regain it.”

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Soleiti, deputy head of the Basra Council and a member of the Iraqi National Council, ruled out the possibility of Iranian influence on Iraqi Shi’ite clerics.

“Iran has no sway over religious figures in Najaf [an Iraqi Shi’ite center],” Al-Soleiti told the Media Line. “The clerics of Najaf have deep differences of opinion with the Iranian clerics, who rule Iran, even on matters of Islamic law.”

Al-Soleiti added that Shi’ite clerics have recently begun criticizing Iraqi politicians and pressuring them to find a way out of the current political standstill.

“The Iraqi clerics certainly hold their opinion, but they keep it to themselves and let the politicians do their work,” he said. “The fact that they agreed to the Iraqi constitution proves that the clerics support a civil state and not a religious one.”

Iraqi Parliamentary elections, which took place in March, granted ‘Alawi’s West-leaning Iraqiya bloc a marginal victory over Nouri Al-Maliki’s predominantly Shi’ite State of Law Alliance.

In early June Al-Maliki’s group merged with the Iraqi National Alliance, which never agreed on Al-Maliki’s candidacy.

On Sunday Iraqi National Alliance MP Furat Al-Shar’a opined that the recent rapprochement between the National Alliance and ‘Alawi’s ‘Iraqiya bloc could pressure Al-Maliki’s coalition into proposing an alternative candidate.

Ali Al-Saffar, a Middle East analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that news of Iranian pressure could be viewed as political maneuvering by the smaller parties in Iraq.

“The political horse trading is about how much each group gets in the parliament,” Al-Saffar told The Media Line. “The small parties run the risk of being sidelined in the next elections if they are not included in this government.”

Al-Saffar cited reports of a possible upcoming meeting between Sadr and ‘Alawi, saying Sadr’s decision to attend such a meeting may prove his final rejection of Nouri Al-Maliki.

“If the meeting goes ahead it means that Sadr actually prefers ‘Alawi,” he said.

Reports of Iranian intervention in the Iraqi political game give credence to American claims concerning increased Iranian involvement in Iraq.

General Ray Ordierno, commanding General of the American Forces in Iraq, said in a televised interview on CNN Sunday that through its funding and training of Shi’ite insurgents in Iraq, Iran wished to see “a certain government formed here,” preventing Iraq from becoming “a strong democratic country.”

Nouri Al-Maliki received the Iraqi premiership in 2005. In late 2009 he formed the State of Law Coalition with his own Da'wa Party at its core, in an attempt to overcome sectarian rifts and rebuild Iraq on nationalist principles.

Al-Maliki has been reluctant to forgo his nomination for a second term as president despite his loss to Iyad 'Allawi's Iraqiya bloc in the March elections and adamant opposition from the Shiite Iraqi National Alliance.