Iraq PM Sudani claims election win after early results show decisive lead

Incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani claimed victory for his coalition on Wednesday in Iraq’s general election after preliminary results showed it had secured a decisive lead.Supporters of Sudani, who is vying for a second term, flocked late in the evening to Tahrir Square in Baghdad to celebrate with fireworks and music, according to AFP correspondents.Casting the victory as one for all Iraqis in a televised speech, Sudani congratulated the country “on your coalition winning first place in the parliamentary elections”.”Our coalition, ‘Reconstruction and Development’, is first,” Sudani said separately on X, expressing “deep gratitude to the Iraqi people for their support”.Iraqis went to the polls on Tuesday for a general election that came as the country experienced a rare moment of calm in a region roiled by recent conflicts.The next premier must answer to Iraqis seeking jobs, better infrastructure, and improved education and health systems in a country plagued by corruption and mismanagement.But he also faces the unenviable task of maintaining the delicate balance between Iraq’s allies — arch foes Iran and the United States — made all the more delicate by recent seismic changes in the Middle East.Iraq’s electoral commission announced preliminary results on Wednesday evening showing Sudani’s candidate list in the lead with more than 1.3 million votes — about 217,500 more than the next closest list.The commission said Tuesday that more than 12 million people took part out of 21 million eligible voters, despite influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr calling on his supporters to boycott the poll.While vote counts for each list by province were released, seat allocations in parliament will not be announced until later.- Difficult task -An official close to Sudani had told AFP before the count was announced that his list was sailing to “a major victory”.Another two sources estimated Sudani’s alliance had won the largest bloc, estimating it would take approximately 50 seats out of a total of 329.Once final results are confirmed, lawmakers are set to begin negotiations to nominate the prime minister — an often painstaking task that has at times taken months.With an outright majority almost impossible to achieve by any single list, who gets the role is determined by whatever coalition can secure enough post-election partnerships to form the largest alliance.In Iraq, the prime ministership goes to the Shiite majority, the speaker of parliament to a Sunni Muslim, and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd. In previous parliaments, Shiite-majority parties have struck compromise deals to work together and form a government.Sudani emerged as a major force in Iraqi politics after he was brought to power three years ago by the Coordination Framework, an alliance of powerful pro-Iran Shiite parties who formed the largest parliamentary bloc.A senior Iraqi politician told AFP last month that the Coordination Framework was divided over supporting Sudani, with former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki reportedly likely to oppose a second term for the incumbent.- Negotiations to come -Even as Iraq tries to move past two decades of war since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, the country of 46 million suffers from poor infrastructure and public services, mismanagement and corruption.Many Iraqis who boycotted the elections told AFP the vote wouldn’t bring meaningful change to their daily lives and said that it was a sham that only benefits political elites and regional powers.Sudani has nonetheless vowed to continue on the path of “reconstruction and development”.During his three-year tenure, Baghdad has been transformed into a bustling construction hub, with new tunnels and bridges springing up across the city.He also maintains that his government helped shield Iraq from regional turmoil over the past two years.Since the US-led invasion, Iran has held sway in Iraqi politics, not only backing influential politicians but also supporting armed groups there.The past two years have seen Israel inflict heavy losses on Tehran-backed groups in the region, and Iran itself was on the receiving end of an unprecedented Israeli bombing campaign during a 12-day war in June.In addition to maintaining its foothold through the groups it backs, Tehran is also seeking to keep the Iraqi market open to products from its crippled economy.Washington meanwhile hopes to cripple Tehran’s influence, and has long pressured Baghdad to disarm Iran-backed groups.

A Toulouse Macron présente sa stratégie pour un espace “devenu champ de bataille”

Le président Emmanuel Macron a achevé mercredi un déplacement à Toulouse par la présentation de la stratégie française pour un espace “devenu un champ de bataille”, dernier chapitre d’une visite chargée où il a lancé un cycle de débats sur les réseaux sociaux et tenté d’apaiser les agriculteurs.”L’espace n’est plus un sanctuaire, c’est devenu un …

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Pardoned French-Algerian writer Sansal arrives in GermanyWed, 12 Nov 2025 20:44:41 GMT

Jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal arrived in Germany for medical treatment on Wednesday after Algiers agreed to a German request that he be pardoned.A spokeswoman for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who on Monday had urged Algeria to free the 81-year-old given his “fragile health condition”, confirmed to AFP that Sansal had landed in Germany and …

Pardoned French-Algerian writer Sansal arrives in GermanyWed, 12 Nov 2025 20:44:41 GMT Read More »

Pardoned French-Algerian writer Sansal arrives in Germany

Jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal arrived in Germany for medical treatment on Wednesday after Algiers agreed to a German request that he be pardoned.A spokeswoman for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who on Monday had urged Algeria to free the 81-year-old given his “fragile health condition”, confirmed to AFP that Sansal had landed in Germany and was being taken straight to hospital.Earlier Steinmeier had thanked Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for the “humanitarian gesture”. According to his family Sansal has prostate cancer.Sansal was given a five-year jail term in March, accused of undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity after he told a far-right French outlet last year that France had unjustly transferred Moroccan territory to Algeria during the 1830 to 1962 colonial period.Algeria views those ideas — which align with longstanding Moroccan territorial claims — as a challenge to its sovereignty.He was arrested in November 2024 at Algiers airport. Because he did not appeal March’s ruling, he was eligible for a presidential pardon.- ‘Mercy and humanity’ -French President Emmanuel Macron had also urged Algeria’s Tebboune to show “mercy and humanity” by releasing the author. On Wednesday, Macron thanked his counterparts in both Algiers and Berlin for their roles in Sansal’s release, saying it was “the result of France’s constant efforts and a method based on respect, calm and rigor”.Sansal’s daughter Sabeha Sansal, 51, told AFP of her relief by telephone from her home in the Czech Republic.”I was a little pessimistic because he is sick, he is old, and he could have died there,” she said. “I hope we will see each other soon.”A prize-winning figure in North African modern francophone literature, Sansal is known for his criticism of Algerian authorities as well as of Islamists.He acquired French nationality in 2024.Appearing in court without legal counsel on June 24, Sansal had said the case against him “makes no sense” as “the Algerian constitution guarantees freedom of expression and conscience”.When questioned about his writings, Sansal asked: “Are we holding a trial over literature? Where are we headed?”His case has become a cause celebre in France, but his past support for Israel and his 2014 visit there have made him largely unpopular in Algeria.The case has also become entangled in the diplomatic crisis between Paris and Algiers, which has led to the expulsion of officials on both sides, the recall of ambassadors and restrictions on holders of diplomatic visas.Another point of contention was the sentencing to seven years in prison of French sportswriter Christophe Gleizes in Algiers on accusations of attempting to interview a member of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), designated a terrorist organisation by Algeria in 2021.Both Sansal and Gleizes’s prosecution came amid the latest rise in tensions between Paris and Algiers, triggered in July 2024 when Macron backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front. Macron said Wednesday he was “available to discuss with (Tebboune) all matters of interest to our two countries”.- Civil servant turned novelist -An economist by training, Sansal worked as a senior civil servant in his native Algeria, with his first novel appearing in 1999.”The Barbarians’ Oath” dealt with the rise of fundamentalist Islam in Algeria and was published in the midst of the country’s civil war, which left some 200,000 people dead, according to official figures.He was fired from his post in the industry ministry in 2003 for his opposition to the government but continued publishing.His 2008 work “The German Mujahid” was censored in Algeria for drawing parallels between Islamism and Nazism.He has received several international prizes for his work, including in France and Germany.In recent years Germany has offered refuge to several high-profile prisoners from other countries.The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was treated at Berlin’s Charite hospital after being poisoned in August 2020.Last year Germany welcomed several other high-profile Russian dissidents as part of a historic prisoner swap with Moscow.ad-bou-fka-jsk/yad

China hopes US will ‘some day’ return to climate fold, official tells AFP

China believes the United States eventually will return to climate talks, the head of Beijing’s delegation told AFP Wednesday at the COP30 climate summit, adding the world must show that the green transition “cannot be reversed.”Cooperation between China and the United States, the world’s biggest economies and top polluters, has been key in the past to breaking deadlocks during negotiations at the annual UN climate talks.But President Donald Trump, who has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, and his government have shunned this year’s conference in Belem, a city in the Brazilian Amazon.”Addressing climate change needs every country. We hope that some day, and we also believe that some day in the future, the US will come back,” Li Gao, who is also a deputy environment minister, told AFP.While Trump promotes fossil fuels and rolls back the green tech policies of his predecessor Joe Biden, China is installing more renewable energy sources and putting more electric vehicles on its roads than any other country.Li said China’s priority at COP30 is to support the Brazilian presidency “together with others to send out a very strong political signal that the green low-carbon transition cannot be reversed” and that “international cooperation cannot be reduced.””It is very important that parties here show political solidarity and commit to work together to address climate change and make sure this COP is an implementation COP,” he added.Li urged countries to “avoid the negative impact of, for example, geopolitical unilateralism or protectionism.”A major issue being discussed at the Conference of the Parties in Belem is how to provide money to help developing countries transition to green energy and adapt to climate change.The COP29 gathering in Baku last year ended with developed nations agreeing to provide $300 billion annually in climate finance to poorer countries by 2035, a figure criticized as way below what is needed to meet the challenge.They also set a much less specific target of helping raise $1.3 trillion annually from public and private sources.A report released by the heads of COP29 and Brazil’s COP30 presidency says the world has all the tools to reach the target.”We welcome the report for the $1.3 trillion, but we think it is crucial that developed countries fulfil the commitment for $300 billion, because it’s their responsibility,” Li said. 

Irak: le Premier ministre sortant revendique la victoire aux législatives

Le Premier ministre irakien sortant, Mohamed Chia al-Soudani, a revendiqué mercredi soir la victoire de sa liste aux élections législatives après la diffusion des premiers résultats de la commission électorale.Des centaines de ses partisans se sont rassemblés sur la place Tahrir, au centre de la capitale Bagdad, brandissant des drapeaux irakiens et lançant des feux d’artifice, selon des journalistes de l’AFP.”Notre +Coalition pour la reconstruction et le développement+ arrive en première position”, a déclaré M. Soudani sur X, exprimant sa “profonde gratitude envers le peuple irakien pour son soutien”.En soirée, les premiers résultats fournis par la commission électorale créditaient cette liste du plus grand nombre de voix aux législatives de mardi.Le prochain gouvernement irakien, dont la formation devrait toutefois donner lieu à d’intenses tractations, devra répondre aux demandes de la société pour des emplois, ainsi que de meilleurs infrastructures, services éducatifs et de santé, dans un pays miné par la corruption et la mauvaise gestion.Dans son discours, M. Soudani a dit vouloir tenir compte, dans la formation du prochain gouvernement, de la “volonté de tous les électeurs et des intérêts de tout notre peuple, y compris de ceux qui ont choisi de boycotter” le scrutin, comme l’influent leader chiite Moqtada Sadr.M. Soudani devra aussi préserver le fragile équilibre entre les deux principaux alliés de l’Irak, l’Iran et les Etats-Unis, alors que le Moyen-Orient traverse une période de profonds bouleversements dans le sillage de la guerre à Gaza. – Alliance nécessaire -M. Soudani s’est imposé sur la scène politique irakienne après avoir été porté au pouvoir en 2022 grâce au soutien d’une alliance regroupant des partis et factions chiites tous liés à l’Iran, le Cadre de coordination,Les élections ouvrent la voie à la désignation d’un nouveau président, poste largement honorifique réservé à un Kurde, et d’un Premier ministre traditionnellement chiite. Un sunnite occupera le poste de président du Parlement.Une majorité absolue étant de fait impossible à obtenir pour une seule liste, M. Soudani, si sa victoire est confirmée, devra à nouveau fédérer les factions chiites pour assurer sa reconduction.Les partis sunnites se sont présentés séparément au scrutin, marqué par une participation de plus de 55% selon la commission électorale, l’ancien président du Parlement Mohamed al-Halboussi étant donné favori.Dans la région autonome du Kurdistan, la rivalité entre le Parti démocratique du Kurdistan (PDK) et l’Union patriotique du Kurdistan (UPK) reste vive. L’Irak a connu une stabilité inhabituelle ces dernières années, après plusieurs décennies de guerre et de répression sous Saddam Hussein et depuis l’invasion menée par les Etats-Unis en 2003 qui l’a renversé.Les électeurs étaient appelés à départager plus de 7.700 candidats, dont près d’un tiers de femmes, pour occuper 329 sièges de députés aux mandats de quatre ans.Le taux de participation marque une forte hausse par rapport au record historiquement bas de 41% en 2021, malgré un sentiment général d’apathie et de scepticisme, ainsi que le boycott du scrutin par l’influent leader chiite Moqtada Sadr, qui a dénoncé une élection “dominée par les intérêts sectaires, ethniques et partisans”.- Développement et jeu d’équilibriste -Lors de sa campagne, M. Soudani s’est engagé à poursuivre sa politique de reconstruction et de développement.Durant ses trois années de mandat, Bagdad s’est métamorphosée en un vaste chantier, avec la construction de nouveaux tunnels et ponts à travers la capitale.M. Soudani affirme par ailleurs que son gouvernement a préservé l’Irak des turbulences régionales au cours des deux dernières années.L’issue de cette échéance électorale est suivie de près par l’Iran et les Etats-Unis. L’Iran espère préserver son influence chez son voisin après avoir vu ses autres alliés régionaux (Hezbollah libanais, Hamas palestinien, Houthis yéménites) affaiblis depuis deux ans par leurs conflits avec Israël. Téhéran a en outre perdu un allié majeur avec la chute de Bachar al-Assad en Syrie fin 2024.Et l’Irak est sous pression des Etats-Unis (qui maintiennent quelque 2.500 soldats dans le pays) pour désarmer les groupes pro-iraniens.L’administration du président Donald Trump a nommé un envoyé spécial pour le pays, Mark Savaya, d’origine irakienne, qui a insisté sur la nécessité de voir l’Irak “libéré des ingérences étrangères malveillantes, notamment celles de l’Iran et de ses supplétifs”.

Record-breaking US shutdown to end as political fallout begins

Congress looked set Wednesday to end the longest government shutdown in US history — 43 days that paralyzed Washington and left hundreds of thousands of workers unpaid while Donald Trump’s Republicans and Democrats played a high-stakes blame game.The House of Representatives was expected to rubber-stamp a contentious Senate-passed funding package that will reopen federal agencies, as many Democrats fume over what they see as a capitulation by party leaders.”We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight. It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, pointing the finger for the standoff at the minority party.The package would fund military construction, veterans’ affairs, the Department of Agriculture and Congress itself through next fall, and the rest of government through the end of January.Around 670,000 furloughed civil servants will report back to work, and a similar number who were kept at their posts with no compensation — including more than 60,000 air traffic controllers and airport security staff — will get back pay.The deal also restores federal workers fired by Trump during the shutdown, while air travel that has been disrupted across the country will gradually return to normal.During a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, Trump broke off to take a victory lap over the shutdown ending.”We’re opening up our country — it should have never been closed,” said Trump, bucking presidential tradition by using a ceremonial event to score political points.Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president hoped to sign the bill ending the shutdown “later tonight.”Johnson and his Republicans — who have a two-vote margin and almost no room for error — are bracing for one or two rebels to balk at the terms.The deal appears likely to pass roughly along party lines, with Democratic leadership — furious over what they see as their Senate colleagues folding — urging members to vote no.- ‘Not backing away’ -Although polling showed the public mostly on Democrats’ side throughout the standoff, Republicans are widely seen as having done better from its conclusion.For more than five weeks, Democrats held firm on refusing to reopen the government unless Trump agreed to extend pandemic-era tax credits that made health insurance affordable for millions of Americans.Election victories in multiple states last week gave Democrats further encouragement and a reinvigorated sense of purpose.But a group of eight moderate Senate Democrats broke ranks to cut a deal with Republicans that offers a vote in the upper chamber on health care subsidies — but no floor time in the House and no guarantee of action.Democrats are now deep in a painful reckoning over how their tough stance crumbled without any notable win.Democratic leadership is arguing that — while their health care demands went largely unheard — they were able to shine the spotlight on an issue that they hope will power them to victory in the 2026 midterm elections.”Over the last several weeks, we have elevated successfully the issue of the Republican health care crisis, and we’re not backing away from it,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MSNBC.But his Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer is facing a backlash from the fractious progressive base for failing to keep his members unified, with a handful of House Democrats calling for his head.Outside Washington, some of the party’s hottest tips for the 2028 presidential nomination added their own voices to the chorus of opprobrium.California Governor Gavin Newsom called the agreement “pathetic,” while his Illinois counterpart JB Pritzker said it amounted to an “empty promise.” Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg called it a “bad deal.”The full financial toll of the shutdown has yet to be determined, although the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it has caused $14 billion in lost growth.