ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Senior Iraqi Shiite leader Ammar al-Hakim has intervened to end an escalating dispute between the political coalitions led by former prime ministers Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and Nouri al-Maliki, a senior official from Sudani’s coalition said Sunday, following days of bitter exchanges over corruption allegations, government debt and the 2014 fall of Mosul to the Islamic State (ISIS).
“Some sort of dispute arose between the parties recently,” Mohammed al-Khalidi, a member of Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition (RDC), told Iraq’s al-Rasheed television on Sunday evening. “The information I obtained a little bit ago is that Mr. Ammar al-Hakim has intervened. This thing is over.”
Hakim is the head of the Iraqi Shiite National Wisdom Movement (al-Hikma).
Khalidi acknowledged that a recent social media post by another coalition member calling for Maliki to stand trial was unusually harsh, but said it was issued in response to accusations from Maliki’s State of Law Coalition. He revealed that the post had been made on instructions rather than as a personal opinion, adding that the instructions changed following Hakim’s intervention.
The dispute highlights persistent divisions within Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework, which includes both coalitions and has dominated government formation since the withdrawal of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr from parliamentary politics in 2022. Although the Framework ultimately agreed on Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in April, the latest confrontation has revived tensions between two of its most prominent political forces.
The confrontation intensified last week after State of Law lawmaker Yousef al-Kalabi accused Sudani’s government, which governed from 2022 until May 2026, of leaving Iraq with approximately 210 trillion dinars ($138 billion at the official exchange rate) in debt and demanded that the former premier be held accountable.
The RDC announced a boycott of parliamentary sessions on October 26, accusing Kalabi of making “derogatory and unfounded allegations” against its leader. The coalition ended the boycott the following day after Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi approved referring the lawmaker to the parliamentary conduct committee.
Kalabi subsequently challenged the decision, arguing that his remarks fell within his constitutional oversight responsibilities. He also called for a public parliamentary session to question Sudani over his government's borrowing, spending and financial management.
The dispute escalated further on Saturday when Khalid Waleed al-Marsoumi, a member of Sudani’s coalition, called for Maliki to be prosecuted over the fall of some Iraqi cities to ISIS during his premiership.
“Put Maliki on trial, and do not forget the blood of your sons in the days of the fall of the provinces and the bitter strife,” Marsoumi wrote in a post on X that was subsequently deleted.
“Try him, so that he becomes a lesson to whoever destroys society and spreads strife,” he added, also questioning the status of Iraq’s final government accounts for 2012 to 2016.
Hisham al-Rikabi, spokesperson for Maliki’s State of Law Coalition, responded on Saturday, accusing his political rivals of exploiting the suffering of Iraqis for political purposes.
“Enough hypocrisy and point-scoring over the blood of Iraqis,” Rikabi wrote on X. “Whoever speaks today about the fall of the provinces and strife must stop exploiting Iraqis’ tragedies in their political rivalries.”
In June 2014, ISIS captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, after Iraqi security forces collapsed, seizing vast territories across northern and western Iraq. Maliki was prime minister at the time.
A parliamentary investigative committee concluded in August 2015 that Maliki and 35 other senior officials bore responsibility for the fall of Mosul. Parliament subsequently referred the committee’s findings to the judiciary for further investigation. Maliki rejected the accusations, blaming military commanders and political rivals for the collapse.
Disagreements over government debt
The two Shiite-led coalitions have also offered competing explanations for Iraq’s mounting debt and budget deficit.
Ahmed al-Mubarqah, head of the State of Law parliamentary bloc, told Iraqi television channel al-Nahrain on Sunday that the financial difficulties facing Zaidi’s government could not be attributed solely to the disruption of Iraqi oil exports caused by the Strait of Hormuz crisis.
“I am not talking about Hormuz and the crisis alone, although that is part of it, but the other part is the spending policy of the previous government that resulted in a deficit in the budget,” he said.
Mubarqah also criticized the RDC’s decision to boycott parliament over Kalabi’s remarks, describing it as hasty and arguing that political disagreements should not distract lawmakers from the country’s economic challenges.
“Today, the country is grappling with an economic challenge, so parliament really shouldn't busy itself with these things,” he said.
While acknowledging reservations about Kalabi’s manner of speaking, Mubarqah defended the lawmaker’s right to criticize the former government and opposed disciplinary measures against him.
Khalidi, meanwhile, rejected attempts to hold Sudani solely responsible for Iraq’s accumulating debt, arguing that the former premier had inherited financial obligations from previous governments and that the disruption of oil exports under Zaidi had further complicated the country’s finances.
He said Sudani’s government had been authorized to borrow up to 184 trillion dinars under the three-year budget covering 2023 to 2025, but maintained that it borrowed on only one occasion to finance development projects.
Khalidi also claimed that Sudani’s government had implemented 11,000 projects that had stalled under previous administrations.
Responding to Kalabi’s calls for an investigation, Khalidi said the RDC would support a comprehensive examination of public spending and corruption across successive governments since 2005, rather than an inquiry targeting Sudani alone.
“Let them conduct an investigation, and let's see in which government corruption was the highest. We want this,” he said, calling for governments dating back to 2005 to be scrutinized.
From political allies to rivals
The confrontation marks another deterioration in relations between Maliki and Sudani, whose political fortunes were once closely intertwined.
Sudani emerged as the Coordination Framework’s compromise candidate for prime minister in July 2022, with Maliki’s backing, following months of political deadlock and the withdrawal of Sadr’s lawmakers from parliament.
Maliki, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2014, was instrumental in supporting Sudani’s rise to power. Sudani had previously served as a minister in Maliki’s government and was associated with his State of Law Coalition.
Their political relationship subsequently deteriorated as Sudani sought a second term following the November 2025 parliamentary elections, in which his coalition emerged as the largest electoral list with 46 seats.
Maliki also sought the premiership and emerged as the Coordination Framework’s initial nominee in January 2026. His candidacy, however, encountered strong opposition from US President Donald Trump, who warned that Washington would no longer support Iraq if Maliki returned to power.
After months of negotiations and competing candidacies, the Coordination Framework eventually settled on Zaidi as its consensus candidate in late April.
Trump subsequently told Rudaw that Zaidi had secured the nomination “with our help,” expressing strong support for the new premier.
The struggle over the premiership exposed divisions within the Shiite alliance, with factions aligning themselves with either Sudani or Maliki. The competition has continued despite the two leaders ultimately backing Zaidi’s nomination.
The latest tensions also reflect broader rivalries within Iraqi Shiite politics, which have previously resulted in violent confrontations and prolonged political deadlock.
Sadr, whose movement won 73 seats in the 2021 parliamentary elections, withdrew his lawmakers in June 2022 following a bitter standoff with the Coordination Framework over government formation. He subsequently boycotted the November 2025 elections, citing widespread corruption and rejecting participation in a political system he considers fundamentally flawed.
Hakim, who leads the National Wisdom Movement, has frequently sought to bridge disagreements within the Coordination Framework. During a meeting with Maliki in September, the two leaders stressed the importance of maintaining the alliance’s unity.
Sudani and Maliki themselves met on October 7, when they publicly called for continued cooperation and coordination among the Framework’s members, weeks before their coalitions became embroiled in the latest dispute.
