Exclusive: PM order clashes with Iraq interior minister on promotions
Shafaq News- Baghdad (Updated at 17:09)
A day after Iraq's new interior minister eased the rules for promoting police officers, the prime minister's office issued security-wide guidelines that reverse them, according to two official documents obtained by Shafaq News, creating conflicting promotion rules within the country's security establishment.
On October 20, Interior Minister Yasser Sukhail al-Maliki ordered that lieutenant colonels be promoted to colonel once they meet the legal requirements, without having to hold a specific post. Colonels could also move up to brigadier general without a qualifying post if they had served six years in their current rank. The order, covering the January 2027 promotions schedule, said it responded to officers' appeals and aimed to remove obstacles to their careers.
The next day, Gen. Abdul Amir al-Shammari, director of the office of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, issued promotion rules for all of Iraq's security agencies, including the Interior and Defense ministries, the Counter-Terrorism Service and the Border Ports Authority. The rules, his letter said, had been approved by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who, as commander-in-chief, oversees the security forces.
Al-Shammari's guidelines restore the post requirement that al-Maliki had dropped. A lieutenant colonel must serve as a section director or unit commander, or in an equivalent post, before promotion to colonel. A colonel must head a department or command a regiment or brigade to become a brigadier general, and a brigadier general must lead a directorate or division to make major general. Officers must have held the post for at least 90 days.
Curbing A Top-Heavy Force
The prime minister's office also told agencies to reconcile their staffing structures with the Finance Ministry by the end of November, ahead of the January 2027 promotion schedule, to determine actual needs and prevent promotions from exceeding approved positions. The Interior Ministry was told not to request service extensions for officers except in cases of urgent need.
Other rules give priority to wounded officers, require merit-based selection when candidates outnumber available slots, and allow the prime minister to grant a one-time exceptional promotion for heroism or outstanding competence.
Al-Maliki, a State of Law Coalition lawmaker, took office as interior minister after parliament approved him on October 15 as part of al-Zaidi's effort to complete his cabinet. Al-Shammari served as interior minister in the previous government of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
Parliament Speaker Steps Into The Dispute
Ali al-Azirjawi, a lawmaker from Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition, said that the parliament speaker, Haibet al-Halbousi, has stepped into a dispute over police officer promotions between the Interior Minister and the prime minister’s office.
“Unnamed parties are trying to obstruct the Interior Ministry’s decision on promotions,” al-Azirjawi told a news conference, adding that he had submitted a letter on the matter to al-Halbousi, who approved it.
Officers’ promotions are being held up on the pretext that there are no posts to assign them, al-Azirjawi said. “Parliament would take a position and a decision to resolve the issue and treat the officers fairly.”
