Former Iraqi finance minister claims sacking politically motivated

Following the Iraqi parliament’s vote of no confidence that led to Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari being sacked yesterday, Zebari has claimed that the motion to remove him from office was a case of “political targeting”.

Zebari, a veteran Kurdish politician belonging to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) who currently hold sway over the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), was accused of graft and narrowly avoided a vote of no confidence earlier this month when parliament failed to make a quorum.

The KDP politician said that he was targeted by a series of senior Iraqi political players, primarily Nouri Al-Maliki, the head of the Shia State of Law coalition and former prime minister who was regularly accused of sectarianism throughout his premiership.

Zebari stated that other politicians, including Sunnis, were involved in his removal. Describing the involvement of these Sunni politicians as unfortunate, Zebari went on to clarify that “the speaker of parliament, Saleem Al-Jibouri, collaborated with [Al-Maliki] even though [Al-Jibouri] should be neutral and impartial.”

Yesterday’s secret ballot saw an overwhelming majority of lawmakers vote to force Zebari from office. Member of Parliament Ammar Tuma revealed to AFP that “158 deputies voted yes to the dismissal of the finance minister, with 77 voting to reject the dismissal and 14 abstaining from the vote out of a total of 249 deputies.”

The State of Law coalition led by Al-Maliki has 92 deputies, likely contributing to a significant portion of the votes to sack Zebari.

A KDP lawmaker, Ashwaq Al-Jaf, told AFP that what happened to Zebari was “political targeting, 100 per cent”. The KDP has yet to release an official statement. Iraqi politics is notably fraught with ethno-sectarian divisions, with any removal of a senior Kurdish official likely to attract the ire of Erbil and the President of the KRG Massoud Barzani, who is also the leader of the KDP.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Iraqi political analyst Kifah Mahmoud described the sacking of Zebari as a “political circus” and blamed Shia politicians from the State of Law coalition and its main constituent party, the ruling Dawa Party, for “marginalising the Sunni and Kurdish political presence”.

Mahmoud accused the Dawa Party of trying to focus power in their hands and of “becoming very similar to the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party,” a damning reference to the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

Hoshyar Zebari came to prominence as a senior leader of the KDP after US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. He has held a number of senior cabinet positions in the Iraqi government, and became finance minister in 2014. Prior to that, he was foreign minister across both governments formed by Nouri Al-Maliki.