SUNNI HEWAR BLOC REP HOLDS THE FORT, TAKES ON BLOC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000460

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/11/2017
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: SUNNI HEWAR BLOC REP HOLDS THE FORT, TAKES ON BLOC
LEADERS AND ABSENTEEISM

Classified By: Deputy Political Counselor Charles O. Blaha,
for reasons 1.4 (b) (d).


1. (C) Summary: Kirkuk native and Sunni Hewar bloc CoR
member Mohammed Tamimi has never missed a session of Iraq's
Council of Representatives (CoR). The rest of Hewar's
attendance at the CoR is sparse at best; remaining bloc
members shuttle back and forth between Amman and Baghdad.
Bloc leader Saleh Al-Motluq, who is resident in Dubai and
Amman, attended a handful of sessions at the start of the
legislative term but now claims he is on an "Iranian hit
list" and says he will not return until security improves.
Tamimi is the bloc's de facto representative at the CoR; he
speaks for Motluq and updates him daily. While he is not
vocal on the CoR floor and relatively silent in the media,
Tamimi, a former law professor, is a member of the
Constitutional Review Committee, the CoR Integrity committee,
and is often in the CoR cafeteria in discussions with members
of all blocs. He labels himself and Hewar secular
"troublemakers" and challenges the idea that a handful of
bloc leaders are authorized to make decisions for the entire
CoR. Tamimi's biggest frustration is CoR member absenteeism.
He claimed he already has 55 signatures for "member
replacement law" that would allow parties to replace members
- including bloc leaders - who miss 15 sessions starting from
the next legislative term, End Summary.

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WHERE IS SALEH AL MOTLUQ?
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2. (C) Tamimi acknowledges that Hewar bloc leader Saleh
Motluq's absence from Iraq is problematic. However, although
he frequently makes critical media statements, Tamimi said
the real reason Motluq is not in Iraq is because Hewar has
evidence he is a target of Iran and would be assassinated if
he returned. All Hewar members actively discourage Motluq
from returning to Iraq. Tamimi said he speaks to Motluq
nearly every day, updates him on political developments, and
is fully authorized to act on Motluq's behalf at the CoR. In
fact, he recently authorized the CoR to remove Motluq as the
Agricultural Committee chair and replace him with Mahmoud
Azzai, a Hewar member who regularly attends CoR sessions.
Motluq traveled to Europe along with a number of Sunni
Tawafuq bloc CoR members for meetings, and he represented
Hewar during the delegation's visit the EU Parliament. He
said that Motluq's general assessment of the GOI was "while
he hopes it will succeed for the good of Iraq, he expects
this entire government, with the way it is structured, to
fail."

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THE REST OF HEWAR: IN AND OUT OF IRAQ
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3. (C) Of his fellow Hewar members, who infrequently attend
the CoR, Tamimi said that businessman Ali Sajri is currently
in Amman and has no intention of participation at the CoR.
Tamimi chastised Sajri for using his CoR membership to get a
diplomatic passport and parliamentary immunity from criminal
prosecution, and to lend legitimacy to his frequent media
commentary. Tamimi he dislikes politicians who use the media
as their podium. Tamimi said that CoR member Asad Ibrahim
Al-Farhan stopped attending sessions when Al Qaeda in Iraq
threatened to kill his nine brothers. However, Al-Farhan has
been working the past few months to get his family out of
Iraq and plans to return to the CoR in March. He said Hewar
member Mohammad al-Daeni, who used to attend sessions
frequently during the first two months, also rarely comes.
However Daeni recently appeared on Al-Jazeera airing images
of women and children he claimed were tortured at Ministry of
Interior facilities under former Interior Minister Bayan
Jabr. This caused Shiite Itilaf bloc leader Jalal Eddin
Al-Sagheer to call for lifting Daeni's immunity and
prosecuting him under anti-terrorism legislation. Tamimi
characterized Daeni's actions "extreme", but said Daeni felt
he had to be heard.


4. (C) According to Tamimi, Mustafa al-Heti and Nada Mohammed
come and go for a week at a time because their families are
in Amman. He said Mohammad Hussein Awad came for four months
until he got sick. Tamimi said when Awad returned after his
illness, two of his PSD members were killed, but he expects
Awad to return in March. Tamimi said that Faleh Hassan
Zeydan, Amr Khalaf Jawad and Mohmoud Azzawi all come with
some regularity.

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STRUGGLING TO BE HEARD
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5. (C) Tamimi expressed frustration at being a minority voice

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in a parliament dominated by large, Islamist blocs. Tamimi
pushed for Hewar to have a seat on the Policy Council for
National Security but said Hewar was not allowed a seat
because the bloc has no ministers in the cabinet. He pointed
out that the by-laws of the constitution do not define what
is considered a bloc, saying this is a problem. Tamimi,
however, was successful at securing Hewar a seat in the
Constitutional Review Political Issues Committee, despite
initial opposition from larger bloc leaders.


6. (C) Tamimi characterized Hewar as a small bloc known as a
troublemaker in the CoR. Tamimi, a secularist, does not
hesitate to challenge the leaders of the largest blocs in the
CoR (Sunni Tawafuq, Shiite Itilaf, and the Kurdistan
Alliance. However, he prefers to work by building
relationships with fellow members through backroom
negotiations. When major bloc leaders this week presented
him with the results of their budget negotiations as a fait
accompli, he told them, "You do not speak for me" and is
working on getting signatories for a petition that supports
his view. Nevertheless, Tamimi says he tries to be careful
not to burn bridges, recognizing he needs to maintain good
relationships for the future. He recounted that he recently
had worked successfully with hardline SCIRI member Jalal
al-Din al-Saghir.


7. (C) Tamimi, a lawyer by training, believes the
constitution is filled with landmines. He said the document
is too flexible, like the American and British constitutions,
and said it should be stricter and less open to
interpretation, like the French constitution. Tamimi is on
the Constitutional Review Committee, but says he has a weak
voice in it. He says he and Salim Jabbouri, a lawyer from
Tawafuq, wrote a joint paper outlining significant
recommendations for changes.

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TAKING ON ABSENTEEISM
--------------


8. (C) Tamimi said he is proposing a "members replacements
law" to address the problem of absentees. The law would
stipulate that, starting from the next legislative term, CoR
members who miss 15 sessions or more could be replaced by
their party. Tamimi said he already has 55 signatures in
support of the law, fifty of whom are Shiite Itilaf members.
He complained he has never seen many CoR members and said
many are former ministers who already have a pension and thus
no incentive to come to work. When reminded that Motluq has
missed more than 15 sessions, Tamimi was adamant that the law
would be applied equally, even to CoR bloc leaders.

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BIO NOTES
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9. (C) Tamimi was a law professor at Kirkuk University for
six years and was elected the university,s president during
the Coalition Provisional Authority era. However, he says
the Education Minister in the Iraqi Transitional Government,
an Iraqi Islamic Party member, dismissed him for political
reasons. In addition to law, Tamimi has a degree in
international relations, specializing in Saudi
Arabian-American relations, and a degree in political
psychology. He said he is still involved in academics and
noted he currently is working on a paper for an assistant
professorship entitled "Saudi Arabian political parties from
1992-2002." He also said he was trained as a diplomat,
although he only stayed in the diplomatic corps for one
month. He is interested in constitutional and international
law.


10. (C) Tamimi joined the National Dialogue Council in 2004,
before Hewar split from the group. He was number two on the
Hewar list in Kirkuk in the December 2005 election. He was
not expecting to win a seat, saying that the election results
were announced four days before he planned to leave to study
at the Sorbonne in Paris. Tamimi married in 1992 at age 17
and has four children, two girls and two boys, ranging from
age thirteen to nine. His family used to live in Hawija, but
they moved to a village in a small village just outside
Kirkuk for security reasons. He said he had not seen his
family in three months and knew that their living conditions
in the village were difficult. He said appreciated the
sacrifice they were making so he could attend CoR sessions.
He is a smoker and does not speak English. Tamimi is a
frank, open, knowledgeable interlocutor. He appears to be
good friends with fellow outspoken CoR "troublemaker" Hussein
Falluji. Tamimi is someone to watch in the CoR.
KHALILZAD