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Iraqi firebrand leader Moqtada al-Sadr\u2019s movement announced its refusal to join a new government being formed by Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Shia al-Sudani.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s announcement came two days after lawmakers elected\u00a0Abdul Latif Rashid\u00a0as Iraq\u2019s new president, and he swiftly named al-Sudani as prime minister in a bid to end a year of political gridlock since the October 2021 elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stress our firm and clear refusal for any of our affiliates to participate \u2026 in this government formation,\u201d Mohammed Saleh al-Iraqi, a close associate of al-Sadr, said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
The 52-year-old Shia former minister al-Sudani has the backing of al-Sadr\u2019s Iran-backed rivals, the\u00a0Coordination Framework, which controls 138 out of 329 seats in the Iraqi legislature.<\/p>\n
In June, al-Sadr ordered the 73 legislators in his bloc to resign, leaving parliament in the hands of the Framework, which includes representatives of the former paramilitary force\u00a0Hashd al-Shaabi.<\/p>\n
In his statement on Saturday, al-Iraqi alleged the incoming government has a \u201cclear subordination to militias\u201d and would \u201cnot meet the people\u2019s aspirations\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Sadrist official said the movement refused to take part in any government led by al-Sudani \u201cor any other candidate from among the old faces or those affiliated with the corrupt\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who joins their ministries does not represent us \u2026 Rather, we disavow them,\u201d al-Iraqi said.<\/p>\n
Snap elections were held last year following nationwide protests that erupted in October 2019 to decry endemic corruption, decaying infrastructure, and the absence of services and jobs for youth.<\/p>\n
The stakes are high for the next cabinet with a colossal $87bn in revenues from oil exports locked up in the central bank\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n
The money can help rebuild infrastructure in the war-ravaged country, but it can only be invested after legislators approve a state budget presented by the government, once formed.<\/p>\n
Al-Sudani promised on Thursday to push through \u201ceconomic reforms\u201d that would revitalise Iraq\u2019s industry, agriculture and private sector.<\/p>\n
The prime minister-designate also promised to provide young Iraqis \u201cemployment opportunities and housing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Al-Sadr, who has the ability to mobilise tens of thousands of his supporters with a single tweet, has repeatedly demanded early elections, while the Coordination Framework wants a new government in place before any polls are held.<\/p>\n
Tensions between the two rival Shia camps boiled over on August 29 when more than 30 al-Sadr supporters were killed in clashes with Iran-backed factions and the army in\u00a0Baghdad\u2019s Green Zone, which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions.<\/p>\n
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Iraqi firebrand leader Moqtada al-Sadr\u2019s movement announced its refusal to join a new government being formed by Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Shia al-Sudani. Saturday\u2019s announcement came two days after lawmakers elected\u00a0Abdul Latif Rashid\u00a0as Iraq\u2019s new president, and he swiftly named al-Sudani as prime minister in a bid to end a year of political gridlock since the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182991"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182994,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182991\/revisions\/182994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}