SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s withdrawal from Iraq’s political process accelerates government formation, said the leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq Qais Khazali on Sunday.
Speaking at Eid al-Adha praying speech, Khazali said in front of his supporters, “Iraq’s political deadlock has remained for nearly nine months, however the latest developments, for instance, Sadrist movement withdrawal resulted in creating a new horizon to form the government”.
“We try to not let the government formation be paralyzed and now there is a real opportunity,” Khazali said.
The situation desires to prevent chaos in Iraq, a country that produces 4 million barrels of oil daily, Khazali added in the speech.
During his remarks, Khazali demanded the Kurdish parties decide on a candidate for the Iraqi president position saying, “The Kurdish parties have quarrel”.
“There is no quarrel between the Shiite parties for the Prime Minister position candidate, the Shiite coordination framework will soon have a joint candidate” khazali added.
Iraq is trapped inside the longest political stalemate since the country’s latest early election which was held in October 2021. Since then, government formation has continuously been postponed due to the conflict between the Iraqi parties.
Lack of consensus and disagreement have hindered the process, nearly nine months passed, and only the speaker of Parliament had been able to be elected by the MPs, Prime Minister along with the President’s position has remained vacant so far.
Under a power-sharing system that designed to prevent political deprivation and avoid sectarian conflict, the President of Iraq is a Kurd, the Speaker of Parliament is Sunni and its Prime Minister is Shiite.
