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Iraq’s former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has angrily denounced “blatant American interference” in the country’s election after Donald Trump threatened to withdraw US support if he was returned to power.
“We reject the blatant American interference in Iraq’s internal affairs and consider it a violation of its sovereignty,” al-Maliki, who is nominated by the country’s dominant political bloc to return to the premiership, said in a statement on Wednesday.
His comments came after Trump wrote in a social media post: “Last time Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos … Because of his insane policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq and, if we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom.”
Trump’s intervention in Iraqi politics comes as he weighs carrying out new strikes on neighbouring Iran, and as the US starts transferring Islamic State militants from detention sites in Syria to ones in Iraq.
Washington has been pushing Iraq to distance itself from Iran, and sees al-Maliki as too close to Tehran. His last term, which ended in 2014, coincided with the rise of the Islamic State group, which seized swaths of the country.
The list of candidates of the caretaker prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, won the largest share of seats in November’s parliamentary elections. But al-Sudani stepped aside earlier this month, clearing the field for al-Maliki after the two competed for the backing of the Coordination Framework, a collection of Shia parties that is the largest parliamentary bloc.
The framework named al-Maliki as its nominee last week. A parliament session was to take place on Tuesday to elect a president, who in turn would appoint the prime minister, but was cancelled owing to the lack of a quorum, with no alternative date set.
Al-Maliki said he would continue to stand for the premiership “out of respect for the national will and the Coordination Framework’s decision”.
Al-Sudani came to power with the backing of the Coordination Framework in 2022. During his first term he managed to balance relations with Iran and the US, and restrained Iraqi pro-Iran militias from intervening in support of Iran during last year’s 12-day Israel-Iran war.
Some of those militias have voiced their support for al-Maliki.
Abu Alaa al-Walae, the commander of the Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada militia, called Trump’s statement “blatant interference in Iraqi affairs”, adding: “The criminal Trump, who physically assassinated the leaders of victory, now wants to repeat the act by politically assassinating [al-Maliki].”
During his first presidential term, Trump ordered a drone strike that killed the powerful Iranian military leader Gen Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy leader of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella group for an array of militias – including Iran-backed groups – formed to fight Islamic State.
