ERBIL, Iraq — A report released mid-August by the Iraqi parliament on the 2014 fall of Mosul, the country's second-largest city, to the Islamic State (IS) is being viewed as a litmus test for the new direction Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wants to take the country through a set of bold but decisive political, economic and administrative reforms. Iraqi lawmakers ratified the report Aug. 17 without reading it on the floor and referred it to the judiciary for action. That the investigative committee put former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the top of a list of more than 30 senior state officials responsible for Mosul's fall is likely to deepen tensions in the Iraqi political landscape, as Maliki is currently locked in a power struggle with Abadi.
The report's release coincided with efforts by Abadi to enact a broad range of reforms, approved Aug. 11 by the legislature, to overhaul the country's dysfunctional system of governance. Capitalizing on widespread and popular calls for change and support from senior Shiite religious figures, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Abadi proposed the abolition of deputy prime minister positions, of which there are three, as well as the three vice presidencies. Given the issue of balancing sectarian and ethnic representation in Iraq's higher institutions, Abadi's measures could antagonize many powerful figures, not the least Maliki.
