SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Head of al-Fateh Alliance Hadi Amiri and Chairman of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Committee (PMC) Falih al-Fayyadh will meet Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf on Saturday, according to Iraqi media.
Sources told Iraqi media that the Shia leaders would discuss the formation of a new government during the meeting which will take place in Hanana area in Najaf.
Following the meeting, the Sadrist Movement would hold “an important meeting”, the sources said.
The meeting came days after Sadr spoke by phone with Nouri al-Maliki, head the State of Law coalition. Sadr has selected Jaafar Sadr to become Iraq’s prime minister.
Jaafar, who’s cousin of the Shia cleric, is Iraq’s ambassador in London. It was a former member of the Council of Representatives.
No single party holds an outright majority, so the next leader will be voted in by whichever coalition can negotiate allies to become the biggest bloc — which then elects Iraq’s president, who then appoints a prime minister.
In previous parliaments, parties from Iraq’s Shia majority have struck compromise deals to work together and form a government, with an unofficial system whereby the prime minister is Shia, the president is a Kurd and the speaker of parliament is Sunni.
But Sadr, who once led an anti-U.S. militia and who opposes all foreign interference, has repeatedly said the next prime minister will be chosen by his movement.
Iraq normally enters months of political deadlock after each general election as the political elite jockey for spots in the new government. Iraqis are increasingly disillusioned with the political process, accusing almost all their politicians of corruption.
