Nouri al-Maliki, the former two-term prime minister of Iraq, has been nominated to lead the country once again by the main Shiite political bloc in parliament. The nomination positions him for a return to power more than a decade after he left office amid accusations of sectarianism, corruption, and the security collapse that led to the rise of the Islamic State (IS) group.<\/p>\n
A dominant figure in Iraqi politics since the 2003 US-led invasion, Maliki, 75, has remained an influential powerbroker. His approval has often been considered essential for the formation of previous governing coalitions.<\/p>\n
Maliki’s political career began with his opposition to Saddam Hussein’s rule, leading to nearly 25 years in exile in Iran and Syria as a member of the Islamic Dawa party. He returned to Iraq following the 2003 invasion and was a member of the de-Baathification commission, a controversial program that barred many members of Saddam’s Baath party from public roles and is often cited as a factor in the subsequent insurgency.<\/p>\n
He was first appointed prime minister in 2006 during the height of Iraq’s sectarian war. During his first term, and with American military support, he launched a major offensive against the armed group of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in 2008, which earned him a reputation as a nationalist figure. His first term also saw the withdrawal of US forces in late 2011 and an increase in the country’s oil production.<\/p>\n
However, his second term, after being re-elected in 2010, was marked by political crises and a severe deterioration in national security. Critics accused Maliki of consolidating power within the security forces, discriminating against Sunni Arabs and Kurds, and fostering corruption.<\/p>\n
This period culminated in the 2014 offensive by the Islamic State group, during which the Iraqi army collapsed and the jihadist group seized large territories, including the city of Mosul. A 2015 parliamentary investigation held Maliki and other officials responsible for the fall of the city. Widespread discontent and international pressure ultimately forced him from office.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Maliki has never left the political scene. As the leader of the State of Law Coalition, he has continued to be a key figure in forming parliamentary alliances and selecting candidates for senior government positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nouri al-Maliki, the former two-term prime minister of Iraq, has been nominated to lead the country once again by the main Shiite political bloc in parliament. The nomination positions him for a return to power more than a decade after he left office amid accusations of sectarianism, corruption, and the security collapse that led to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"7","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"left-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[508,2974,442],"class_list":["post-26616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-iraq-2","tag-maliki","tag-politics-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}