When Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, failed again this week to replace his corrupt cabinet with a new breed of reformists, the impact reverberated far beyond Baghdad.
A hundred miles south, in Najaf, Ayatollah Ali Sistani seethed with anger. The 86-year-old cleric, the most revered figure among Iraq’s majority Shia sect, has staked his name on Abadi establishing some form of control over the country’s political class and the powerful presence of its neighbour Iran.
Across the border, in the Iranian shrine city of Qom, the failure was also noted, though not with the same concern. For more than 13 years, Iran has been an essential stakeholder in Baghdad. But in the past three years in particular, it has had more role shaping political outcomes than many of Iraq’s most influential players. After Abadi’s second capitulation in a fortnight, senior officials close to Sistani say he is fast losing hope that the leader he helped appoint in late 2014 can deliver reforms he believes are essential to the survival of the state of Iraq. Worse still, perhaps nobody else can either.
In the decade-plus since the ruthless order of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship was overthrown, Iraq is being torn apart by a convergence of crises that many observers say make it all but ungovernable.
Rampant corruption by a political class, appointed on sectarian lines, has seen the country plundered of enormous wealth that record pumping of oil can’t come close to making up for – especially with oil prices 70% lower than the heady highs of three years ago.
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