{"id":17465,"date":"2018-10-05T06:24:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T06:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17465"},"modified":"2018-10-05T06:24:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T06:24:18","slug":"un-chief-hopes-for-swift-formation-of-iraqi-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17465","title":{"rendered":"UN chief hopes for \u2018swift\u2019 formation of Iraqi government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nNEW TORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he hopes for the \u201cswift\u201d formation of an \u201cinclusive\u201d Iraqi government following the election of the country\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe secretary-general hopes the election of the president will pave the way to the swift formation of an inclusive government in line with constitutional timelines,\u201d Guterres said in a statement that also congratulated Barham Salih on his election as the Iraq\u2019s new president.<\/p>\n

\nSalih tasked Adel Abdul-Mahdi \u2014 who is seen as an independent \u2014 with forming the next Iraqi government late on Tuesday, only hours after being elected.<\/p>\n

\nThe prime minister designate faces an uphill task of bridging differences among sharply-divided Iraqi political parties.<\/p>\n

\nThe largest bloc traditionally appoints the prime minister and presides over the formation of the next government, but the exact contours of a new governing coalition are yet to be drawn.<\/p>\n

\nOutgoing Prime Minister Haider Abadi threw in the towel last month after weeks of deadly protests sparked by anger at the poor services in Iraq\u2019s south cost his fragile alliance the support of populist cleric Moqtada Sadr.<\/p>\n

\nSeveral different blocs in the Iraqi Parliament are jostling for power following the May elections \u2014 in-fighting which had so far stymied the formation of a new government.<\/p>\n

\nThe largest bloc traditionally appoints the prime minister and presides over the formation of the next government.<\/p>\n

\nBut the exact contours of a new governing coalition are yet to be drawn.<\/p>\n

\nSadr\u2019s list won the largest share of seats in the May polls. And after dumping Abadi, it swung behind the pro-Iran bloc led by Hadi Al-Ameri\u2019s Conquest Alliance \u2014 a coalition of anti-extremist veterans close to Tehran.<\/p>\n

\nA spokesman for Conquest Alliance, Ahmad Assadi, said late on Tuesday that \u201cthe largest coalition resolved the issue by naming the prime minister\u201d hinting his bloc had supported Abdel Mahdi\u2019s nomination, but without offering up any concrete evidence.<\/p>\n

\nIraq has a proportional system designed to prevent a slide back into dictatorship following the 2003 ouster of late dictator Saddam Hussein.<\/p>\n

\nThe largely ceremonial role of president, now taken by the 58-year-old Saleh, has been reserved for the Kurds since Iraq\u2019s first multi-party elections in 2005.<\/p>\n

\nThe 76-year-old Abdel Mahdi, a former Iraqi vice president, has proven political credentials and is seen in Iraqi circles as an independent.<\/p>\n

\nIn a country long a political battleground between the US and Iran as they fight for influence, he is regarded as a rare figure of consensus.<\/p>\n

\nAn economist by training, he was once a senior member of a party close to Iran. But he has also won the backing of US and European leaders.<\/p>\n

\nIn 2014, Abdel Mahdi took up the post of oil minister under Abadi before resigning two years later.<\/p>\n

\nNow he has just 30 days to navigate tangled Iraqi politics and form a government. If he fails, then another candidate will have to be chosen to pick up the baton.<\/p>\n

\nA native of Baghdad, Abdel Mahdi is nonetheless credited with having good relations with a number of Kurdish leaders. This could be crucial, coming a year after a disastrous referendum in which Iraqi Kurdistan voted overwhelmingly for independence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW TORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he hopes for the \u201cswift\u201d formation of an \u201cinclusive\u201d Iraqi government following the election of the country\u2019s president. \u201cThe secretary-general hopes the election of the president will pave the way to the swift formation of an inclusive government in line with constitutional timelines,\u201d Guterres said in a statement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17465","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\/17465","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=17465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}