{"id":15580,"date":"2018-09-18T22:25:13","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T22:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15580"},"modified":"2018-09-18T22:25:13","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T22:25:13","slug":"iraqs-shiite-rivals-agree-on-prime-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15580","title":{"rendered":"Iraq\u2019s Shiite rivals agree on prime minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBAGHDAD: Iraq\u2019s rival Shiite blocs in parliament have agreed on who they want as the next prime minister after making progress in negotiations towards forming a government, negotiators told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nThe two factions, one pro Iran and the other anti, have agreed to work together as a coalition, negotiators told Arab News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\nThe veteran Shiite politician and former vice president Adel Abdul Mahdi was informally nominated to replace Haider Al-Abadi, negotiators said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHe will be assigned on Sept. 25 to form a government if his nomination is approved by the Kurdish blocs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nBefore the appointment of prime minister, the president has to be selected. There is no indication that the Kurds, who get the post according to the Iraq\u2019s power sharing agreement, have decided on who to nominate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIraq\u2019s parliament has been split between the Reform alliance and Al-Binna\u2019a alliance after elections in May.<\/p>\n

\n——<\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE:\u00a0Iraq parliament elects Sunni lawmaker Al-Halbousi as speaker, breaking deadlock<\/a><\/p>\n

\nRival Iraqi factions make coalition deal and end Al-Abadi\u2019s prime minister hopes<\/a><\/p>\n

\nRival Shiite factions trade blame for who drove the burning of buildings in Basra<\/a><\/p>\n

\nIran accused of hijacking Basra protests after a week of violence that shook Iraq<\/a><\/p>\n

\n——<\/p>\n

\nReform is controlled by Muqtada Al-Sadr, one of the country\u2019s most influential Shiite clerics who opposes Iranian influence in the country.<\/p>\n

\nIran-backed Al-Binna\u2019a is led by Hadi Al-Amiri, the head of Badr organization, the most prominent Shiite armed faction.<\/p>\n

\nAt the first parliamentary session earlier this month, both coalitions claimed they have the most number of seats which would give them the right to form a government.<\/p>\n

\nWithin hours, violent demonstrations erupted in Basra, Iraq\u2019s main oil hub, killing 15 demonstrators and injuring scores of people. The Iranian consulate was set on fire along with dozens of government and party buildings.<\/p>\n

\nThe violence on the street reflected the stand-off in parliament and threatened to erupt into fighting between the armed wings associated with the different Shiite groups.<\/p>\n

\nThe agreement between the two blocs was the only way to end the violence and prevent a slide into intra-Shiite\u00a0 fighting, senior leaders involved in the talks said.<\/p>\n

\nSeveral meetings between Al-Sadr and Al-Amiri were held in Al-Sadr\u2019s residency in the holy city of Najaf last week to defuse the crisis.<\/p>\n

\nBoth parties\u2019 desire for a truce seemed clear on Saturday at a parliament session to elect the speaker and his deputies. The two blocks showed their influence without colliding with each other. Al-Binna\u2019a presented its candidate for the speaker post and stepped down after winning to make way for the Reform bloc to present its candidate for the post of first deputy of the speaker without competition.<\/p>\n

\nThe negotiations teams continued their meetings over the following days to agree on the details of the government program and select the nominee for the prime minister among the dozens of candidates presented by the forces belonging to the two alliances.<\/p>\n

\nThe first results of talks between the two blocs came out on Tuesday when Al-Amiri withdrew from the race \u201cto open doors for more talks,\u201d and avoid\u00a0 conflict between the alliances.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe will not talk on behalf of Al-Binna\u2019a or the Reform. We both will agree on a candidate. Compatibility is our only choice,\u201d Al-Amiri, said at a press conference in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cToday, Iraq needs to be saved, as we saved it from Daesh, so we have only two options, either we choose to impose the wills and twist each others arms or choose the understanding between us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0Iraq has been a battleground for regional and international powers, especially Iran and the United States, since 2003 US-led invasion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nBrett McGurk, the US envoy to Iraq and Syria, and General Qassim Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Al Quds Force, are deeply involved in the negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe candidate for prime minister should also enjoy the blessing of the religious powers in Najaf, represented by Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the Shiite spiritual leader and most revered figure in Iraq, negotiators said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe situation is complicated as there are three different sides that enjoy the right to use veto. They are Iran, US and Najaf,\u201d a key negotiator of Al-Sadr\u2019s negotiation team told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOne \u2018no\u2019 is enough to exclude any candidate. Not only that, Sadr and Amiri also have their conditions and we still have difficulty reconciling all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe marathon negotiations, which run every day until late at night, finally reached a shortlist for prime minister.<\/p>\n

\nThe three names reached were Adel Abdul Mahdi, a former leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, Falih Al-Fayadh, the former national security adviser, and Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the head of the intelligence service.<\/p>\n

\nAdel Abdul Mahdi was the chosen one, three negotiators from different sides told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe have agreed to nominate Adel Abdul Mahdi as he is the only one who was approved by the three sides (Iran, the US and Najaf),\u201d an Al-Sadr negotiator told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAGHDAD: Iraq\u2019s rival Shiite blocs in parliament have agreed on who they want as the next prime minister after making progress in negotiations towards forming a government, negotiators told Arab News. The two factions, one pro Iran and the other anti, have agreed to work together as a coalition, negotiators told Arab News on Tuesday.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}