Haider al-Abadi abruptly fires Iraq’s national security adviser

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, has fired his National Security Adviser, Falih Alfayyadh. The Prime Minister cited the undermining of national security and gross negligence as the reasoning behind the termination. Furthermore, Falih Alfayyadh will not be apart of the new Iraqi government formation that is scheduled to begin this week. Alfayyadh was the leader of the paramilitary Hashd al-Shaabi forces and has close ties to former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s political group, the State of Law Coalition.

The Prime Minister’s office released an official statement that read,

In light of Mr. Falih Faisal Fahad Alfayyadh getting involved in practicing political and partisan work, and his wish to address political affairs, which goes against the critical national tasks he is holding. According to the Iraqi constitution in the neutrality of intelligence and security apparatus, the Hashd al-Shaabi commission law, the systems and instructions concerning this and our directives that prohibit exploiting critical security positions in party activities, and based on our authorized jurisdiction, we decided the following.”

The decree, No. 286 sees to be exact, proclaims that Alfayyadh will be stripped of all positions of standing. It specifically states that he will no longer be Iraq‘s national security adviser or head of the Hashd al-Shaabi commission. He will no longer be in charge of Iraq‘s security in any form or function and the changes will take effect immediately according to the decree. Alfayyadh was apparently cooperating with Maliki and the State of Law Coalition’s various officials to build a parliamentary bloc that would overwhelm the remaining seats and their respective political parties. Pair this with the recent transgressions by the Hashd al-Shaabi in Shingal and it’s not hard to understand how Alfayyadh landed on Abadi’s bad side. The first session of elected Parliamentary officials is scheduled to convene next week.