Iraqi PM Retracts Proposal on Big Coalition
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has retracted his initiative for a major coalition of political parties to pick the next president, prime minister and cabinet members by consensus ahead of the parliamentary elections in May.
According to Tasnim dispatches, Abadi decided to withdraw his proposal for one major Iraqi coalition after opposition from a number of political parties.
The prime minister had put forward the proposal for the formation of a big coalition of major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties to make plans for the political future of Iraq.
He had suggested that the major coalition would select the next Iraqi president, premier and ministers before the parliamentary elections in May.
Abadi, however, had to retract his proposal after facing opposing ideas.
Al-Sadr movement has insisted that any coalition to form the government should follow the parliamentary polls. The National Wisdom Movement, created by Ammar al-Hakim, has also argued that an alliance of major parties could give the pretext to opposition movements blame all of Iraq’s problems in the past decade on that big coalition.
The proposal also faced opposition from a number of political figures hoping to take the office as prime minister.
The Baghdad government put an end to the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group in 2017 and managed to address a secessionist move by the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
Following Iraq’s military success against terrorist groups and its handling of Kurdish tensions, the challenges of 2018 appear to be mainly political.
Iraqi is going to hold parliamentary and provincial elections in May, with various groups vying for power.