BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers approved a new government on
Thursday, a key step forward after bitter infighting between
Shiite Muslim
factions and deadly violence following contested elections.
اضافة اعلان
Prime Minister
Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s 21-member cabinet is expected to face myriad
challenges.
The oil-rich but war-ravaged country is plagued by
endemic corruption, rampant unemployment, and decaying infrastructure.
“Our ministerial team will shoulder the
responsibility at this critical period, in which the world is witnessing
tremendous political and economic changes and conflicts,” Sudani’s office said
in a statement after the vote.
Those changes will “add new challenges to our
country, which is already suffering from accumulated crises, that have had
economic, social, humanitarian and environmental impacts on our citizens”, it
added.
It said that
Sudani’s government obtained the
confidence of parliament, but did not give a breakdown of the vote which took
place by a show of hands.
It added, however, that 253 MPs out of parliament’s
329 members were present at the session.
Sudani, 52, was chosen to form the new government on
October 13 following months of infighting between key Shiite Muslim factions that
plunged the country into political deadlock.
Elections ‘within a year’
The movement of firebrand
cleric
Moqtada Al-Sadr, Sudani’s rival in Iraq’s majority Shiite camp, refused
to join the government.
But Sudani had the backing of the Coalition for the Administration
of the State, which includes the Coordination Framework, an alliance of
powerful pro-Iran Shiite factions that hold 138 out of 329 seats in parliament.
Other members include a Sunni grouping led by
parliament speaker Mohammed Al-Halbussi, and two key Kurdish parties.
Of the 21 ministries nominated, 12 posts go to
Shiites supported by the Coordination Framework, six to Sunni leaders, two to
Kurds and one to a Christian woman — one of three females in the new
government.
Some analysts say a new government does not mean the
end of the power struggle between the Sadr and Coordination Framework camp that
spilled into deadly clashes in August.
Ihsan Al-Shammari, a political scientist at the
University of Baghdad, said in order to avoid fresh unrest the new cabinet and
the Coordination Framework should deliver reforms as demanded by Sadr.
Sudani has pledged to hold early elections “within a
year” as requested by Sadr, a grey-bearded preacher who once led a militia
against American and Iraqi government forces.
Endemic corruption
The new prime minister and
his government were confirmed at a time when Iraq is facing numerous challenges
and a battered economy.
State institutions have been weakened by decades of
war, and corruption is endemic.
Official figures published last year estimated that
well over $400 billion had gone missing from state coffers in the near two
decades since dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.
One of Sudani’s first task would be to adopt a
budget for 2022 — a move key to unblock huge revenues from oil exports earned
this year that are locked up in the central bank’s coffers.
The colossal $87 billion in foreign exchange
reserves are needed to put in motion much-needed reforms and kick start
infrastructure projects.
Despite its immense oil and gas reserves, about
one-third of Iraq’s 41 million population now lives in poverty, while some 35
percent of young people are unemployed, according to the UN.
On Thursday, the UN mission in Iraq said it “welcomes
confirmation of Iraqi government, reaffirms readiness to support”.
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