By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj

Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan — 17 May 2026

Iran-backed factions are now moving against Iraq’s parliament speaker as elite infighting exposes the fragile foundations of Ali al-Zaidi’s government.

Iraq’s emerging Shiite coalition is reportedly preparing to remove the speaker of parliament as political factions attack Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi over foreign interference, corruption, and elite power-sharing deals.

Iraq’s New Government Is Already Under Internal Attack

Barely days after Ali al-Zaidi assumed office, Iraq’s political elite appears to be turning against itself.

According to statements from figures linked to the political wing of the Kataib Hezbollah, factions inside the powerful Coordination Framework are now preparing the first major political strike against the new order: removing the speaker of the Iraqi parliament. The move signals something larger than an ordinary political dispute. It reveals that Iraq’s new government may already be entering a phase of internal fragmentation before it has fully consolidated power.

The Coordination Framework Is Fracturing from Within

Saud al-Saadi, a parliamentarian affiliated with armed factions inside Iraq’s Shiite political camp, in a local Iraqi social media commentary claimed a new coalition is forming to dismiss the parliament speaker as the first reaction to growing behind-the-scenes tensions surrounding the formation of the new government. His statements were unusually aggressive.

Al-Saadi accused Iraq’s ruling political establishment of abandoning sectarian power-sharing in favor of what he described as “economic quotas” — a system where ministries and state institutions are divided according to financial interests rather than ideological or communal representation. That accusation matters because it strikes at the core logic of post-2003 Iraq. For years, Iraq’s political system operated through sectarian balancing:

• Shiites controlled key executive power
• Sunnis received the parliament speakership
• Kurds held the presidency
• Ministries were distributed through negotiated factional quotas

But increasingly, Iraq’s political order is no longer driven primarily by sectarian identity. It is driven by access to state wealth. In this evolving system, ministries are not ideological institutions — they are economic assets tied to contracts, patronage networks, smuggling routes, and political financing. Al-Saadi’s criticism reflects growing anger among factions that believe they are being excluded from the redistribution of power and money under the new cabinet structure.

Ali al-Zaidi Accused of Being Manufactured by Foreign Powers

The most explosive claim involved the legitimacy of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi himself. According to al-Saadi, al-Zaidi “was created through financial balance and foreign interference” and lacks both a real parliamentary base and genuine political roots. This accusation reflects a broader perception inside Iraq’s fragmented political environment: that the new prime minister emerged less as an independent national figure and more as the product of negotiated elite engineering between competing domestic and foreign actors.

Al-Saadi further alleged that leaders within the Coordination Framework faced intense pressure from the American diplomatic apparatus in Baghdad and that certain names for government positions were effectively imposed from outside. Whether fully accurate or politically exaggerated, the allegations reveal a deeper reality about Iraqi politics: Almost every major Iraqi government since 2003 has emerged through overlapping negotiations involving:

• Domestic political factions
• Iran-backed armed groups
• Regional actors
• American influence
• Elite financial interests
• Sectarian bargaining structures

Iraq’s governments are rarely born through parliamentary dynamics alone. They are assembled through external mediation and internal power balancing. That is why accusations of foreign interference remain so politically potent.

The Real Struggle Is Over Control of the State

The emerging battle over the parliament speaker is not simply a procedural issue. It is part of a larger war over who controls Iraq’s shrinking political and economic pie. As oil revenues fluctuate and fiscal pressure intensifies, competition inside the Iraqi state is becoming more dangerous. Every ministry matters more. Every appointment matters more. Every political exclusion becomes existential. The new government is therefore entering office at the exact moment Iraq’s ruling elite faces:

• Economic pressure
• Public distrust
• Internal Shiite fragmentation
• Growing militia competition
• Regional instability
• Increasing foreign pressure

Under these conditions, coalition politics becomes increasingly unstable. The removal of the parliament speaker could become the first domino in a broader cycle of elite escalation.

Iraq’s Political System Is Entering a More Dangerous Phase

The first step of the new Shiite coalition is to remove the speaker of the Iraqi parliament Armed groups MP: The first step of the new Shiite coalition is to dismiss the speaker of parliament. Ali Zaidi was created through financial balance and foreign interference and does not have a parliamentary base and political background The leaders of the coordination framework faced great pressure and the US ambassador imposed certain names for the posts.

Saud Saadi, a member of the political wing of the Iraqi Hezbollah militia, said the forces of the coordination framework are working to form a new coalition to dismiss the speaker of parliament, as the first reaction to the events behind the scenes. Saeedi criticized the shift from sectarian quotas to economic quotas and running the country with the mentality of a company manager rather than a statesman. He stressed that the current prime minister was created through financial balance and foreign intervention and does not have a parliamentary base and political background. He said some of the leaders of the coordination framework faced great pressure and interference from the head of US affairs in Iraq, who imposed special names for the positions, stressing that accepting the imposition by political forces on the pretext of protecting sovereignty, unacceptable submission

What makes this moment particularly dangerous is that Iraq’s crises are no longer isolated. Political fragmentation now intersects with:

• Fiscal instability
• Militia influence
• Foreign competition
• Institutional weakness
• Public exhaustion with corruption

The result is a state where formal institutions continue to function on paper while real power increasingly shifts toward opaque negotiations between armed factions, party elites, and external actors. The danger for Iraq is not necessarily immediate collapse. It is gradual hollowing. A slow transformation where parliament, elections, and cabinet structures continue to exist, but the real mechanisms of authority move elsewhere. The battle now unfolding around Ali al-Zaidi’s government may therefore represent more than another Baghdad political dispute.

It may be an early sign that Iraq’s post-2003 power-sharing order is entering a new and more unstable phase.

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