{"id":27487,"date":"2018-12-31T01:23:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T01:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27487"},"modified":"2018-12-31T01:23:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T01:23:10","slug":"iraqi-education-minister-resigns-over-brothers-daesh-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27487","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi education minister resigns over brother\u2019s Daesh links"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBAGHDAD: Iraq\u2019s new education minister has resigned over allegations her brother was a leader with Daesh just days after she was handed the post.<\/p>\n

\nThe scandal is the latest blow to Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi who has still not completed his Cabinet amid deep divisions between the Parliament\u2019s main political blocs over the key positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nShaima Khalil Al-Hayali was approved by Parliament last week to head the Education Ministry but had not yet taken the ministerial oath.<\/p>\n

\nShe submitted her resignation on Saturday to Abdul Mahdi after intelligence information emerged that her brother was a Daesh leader in Mosul between the summer of 2014, when the extremist group overran the city, and October 2016, when it was liberated by security forces.<\/p>\n

\nLaith Khalil Al-Hayali, was an engineer working for the Nineveh Water Directorate, local security officials in Mosul told Arab News. He was dismissed from his post before 2014 for his association with Daesh, but he was reappointed as a director after 2014 when the militants seized the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nWebsites linked to Daesh published videos showing Laith praising the militants and inciting people to fight the Iraqi military.<\/p>\n

\nThe intelligence also said that two of Laith\u2019s sons were killed fighting for Daesh during the liberation of Mosul in 2016.<\/p>\n

\nThe first was killed in clashes between the militants and security forces, while the second one blew himself up in a bid to halt advancing forces.<\/p>\n

\nThe minister did not deny her brother\u2019s involvement with Daesh but said he was forced to work with them and that he showed up in the videos under the threat of being shot.<\/p>\n

\nThe information is an embarrassment to the leaders of the pro-Iran Al-Binna\u2019a coalition who nominated Al-Hayali.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIt was not clear whether the resignation was Al-Hayali\u2019s decision alone or whether her backers had ordered her to quit.<\/p>\n

\nAbdul Mahdi was sworn in at the end of October but has faced a series of crises during his short time in the position.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThis is not the first time he has presented his preferred candidates for ministerial positions without checking their security and political backgrounds \u2014 something that has deepened mistrust between the prime minster and political parties that could bring down his government.<\/p>\n

\nHe is still without without three key ministers \u2014 defense, interior and justice amid a dispute between the two main blocs in Parliament over the candidates, lawmakers told Arab News on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\nReform, led by the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, opposes the candidates nominated by Al-Binna\u2019a for interior and defense. Al-Binna\u2019a is led by Hadi Al-Amiri, commander of the Iran-backed Badr Organization, the most powerful armed faction.<\/p>\n

\nAbdul Mahdi has not commented on Al-Hayali\u2019s resignation and not even announced whether he has accepted her letter.<\/p>\n

\nThe incident has brought to the forefront allegations against other new ministers. They include Communications Minister Naeim Al-Rubaie, a former senior figure in Saddam Hussein\u2019s Baath party. Anyone linked to the organization is banned from involvement in Iraq\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt would be better for Abdul Mahdi to accept her (Al-Hayali\u2019s) resignation to save face,\u201d a key negotiator from Reform told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe asked him at the first session of Parliament to submit the names of the candidates to the security services to be checked. We also demanded that they be presented to the bodies of integrity and accountability and justice, but our requests were ignored.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe result is that the government now includes a minister representing Daesh, another one representing Al-Qaeda and a third one representing Baath party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIraq has struggled to form a government since an election in May led to two main parliamentary camps, one pro Iran and the other anti. An agreement in September broke the deadlock, with the two coalitions agreeing to try and negotiate a new Cabinet led by Abdul Mahdi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAGHDAD: Iraq\u2019s new education minister has resigned over allegations her brother was a leader with Daesh just days after she was handed the post. The scandal is the latest blow to Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi who has still not completed his Cabinet amid deep divisions between the Parliament\u2019s main political blocs over the key…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}