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Abdul Aziz al-Hakim : a heavy heritage
On December 4, 2006, the President of the United States, George Bush, invited Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), to Washington, although he had previously publicly showed his trust in the current Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, M. al-Hakim's rival. The American administration is looking for new alliances in Iraq and its region because the Iraqi government has proven to be powerless in the face of the intensification of the denominational conflict. Coupled together with failings in security, this explains the prolonged stay of the Coalition forces.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim was born in 1953, the son of the much respected Ayatollah Muhsin Baqir al-Hakim – supreme guide of the Shi’ite community from 1955 to 1970. He studied at the Najaf hawza (theology faculty). He fled to Iran in 1980, after being imprisoned three times by the Ba'ath Party in the seventies and his family targeted as well (six of his brothers were killed). In 1982 he helped create the SCIRI, which became an opposition movement. He was also the head of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the party, which fought alongside Iran during the first Gulf War in the Nineteen Eighties. The brigade is still actively supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Al-Hakim returned to Iraq in April of 2003 and entered the international political scene after his brother's death (Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim was Abdul Aziz's predecessor at the head of the SCIRI. He was killed in an attack after his return to Najaf in Aujust 2003). Al-Hakim does not currently work for the Government, despite the victory of the Unified Iraqi Alliance (of which SCIRI is a part) and the fact that he used to be a member and the President of the Iraqi Government Council in 2003. He is in favour of federalism and believes in a harsher military action against the insurgents. Last August he sided with the official security forces and asked for the creation of regional popular committees for the defence of the population against terrorists.
The Hamilton-Baker Report was written in the perspective of a progressive disengagement of the United States and is in favour of a rapprochement with Iran. The urgent need to change policy in Iraq explains why direct contact has been established between the American government and the leader of the SCIRI. The United States have started caring less about numerous controversies, such as that regarding the interfaith violence. Indeed, the armed militia of the SCIRI is accused of partaking in it, and apparently, with State approval (it is believed that the state has been infiltrated by the SCIRI).
Besides, al-Hakim appears to be the safe card for the United States on the Iraqi internal plan, especially because of the discontent regarding the al-Maliki government. Al-Hakim has backed the presence of American troops in Iraq, whereas Sadr’s allies have firmly opposed it. They used to support the Prime Minister, until the day he met with President Bush in Amman. The Shi’ite bloc is divided and the new alliances it is looking to take part in might isolate al-Maliki and put his national reconciliation program in jeopardy, especially because of al-Hakim’s intransigent stand. Indeed, he blames only the Sunni insurgents for the interfaith violence.
In a region where Sunni Muslims are a majority, the rise of the SCIRI could generate tensions. Al-Hakim enjoys tight bonds with the Iranian establishment, and the American administration is hoping to profit from these. In order to muffle critics coming from inside the country and from the neighbouring region, al-Hakim insists on the inalienable sovereignty of Iraq and on the idea that the country needs to solve its crisis independently.
-- Chiara Sulmoni,
Research Assistant
Translated into English by Marguerite Cornu, Research Assistant trainee
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- Origin CERMAM
- http://www.cermam.org/en/logs/portrait/abdul_aziz_alhakim_a_heavy_her_1/
- Publié le 30 March 2007