Baghdad 17 August : Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has invited rival political parties to a gathering on Wednesday, to try to find solutions to the political impasse by an open dialogue across the country.
“I invite the heads of the country’s political parties to a national gathering in the palace of the president on Wednesday to start the national dialogue in search of an end to the political crisis that is currently raging,” al-Kadhimi said in an announcement.
Iraq is “experiencing political difficulties and a political impasse in conjunction with their effects on the performance of the government”, Xinhua news agency quoted the interim Prime Minister as declaring.
Prior to that, in the daytime, he accepted the resignation of Finance Minister Ali Allawi.He was cited as the reason for his resignation “the constant conflict between the political parties that hindered the execution of reforms” as the reason for his resignation.
Al-Kadhimi’s invitation came at a time when political squabbles escalated in the last few weeks between the well-known Shia religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr, and his rivals, the Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella group of Shia Parliamentary parties.
The 3rd of August Al-Sadr encouraged his supporters to continue the peaceful protests until their demands for the dissolution of Parliament and call for early elections are accepted.
The CF was the largest coalition in the Iraqi parliament following al-Sadr directed his supporters in the Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner of the elections on October 10 2021 with 73 seats, to be removed from the Iraqi parliament.
In the last few months, the ongoing conflicts between the Shia parties have impeded the formation of an entirely new Iraqi government, leaving it ineligible to choose the president with two-thirds majority of the 329-seat Parliament as per the constitution.
If elected the President will nominate the Prime Minister who was nominated by the biggest coalition in Parliament, currently the CF to form a new government which will govern the nation for the next four years.
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