As violence sweeps Iraq and militants seize control of large swathes of the country, a Shiite Ba’ath party representative spoke to Al Arabiya News Channel about his opposition to Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Despite his being of the same religious sect, Khodeir Morshedi shed light on his involvement in the opposition activities of the Ba’ath Party, which lost power with the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
Iraq has been plagued by sectarian insecurity which usually sees Shiites standing alongside their co-religionists but Morshedi has chosen to stand against the predominantly Shiite government of Maliki.
As Sunni militants seize large swathes of the country, Maliki has set about rallying the country’s Shiite majority behind his leadership, reinforced by a call to arms from the country’s top Shiite cleric and by promises of support from Iran.
In the interview, Morshedi shed light on the National Islamic Front in Iraq, which working against the government’s interests and includes the Ba'ath Party and local Islamic and national forces.
Morshedi, a longstanding member of the party, was born in the city of Hilla, just south of Baghdad.
He was a member of the National Council between 1996 and 2000 and is a doctor by profession. A father of three, he has a Master's degree from Mosul University and obtained his doctorate in medicine from the United states.
Before the fall of Saddam Hussein, Morshedi was a lecturer at Baghdad University and then moved to Damascus after the regime fell to work as a lecturer for four years.
After the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and the resulting De-Ba'athification campaign, Morshedi dedicated his life to political opposition. He was sought after by the Iraqi government with an arrest warrant and was arrested by Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese judiciary acquitted Morshedi after Baghdad failed to provide convincing evidence for his extradition.
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