Iraq: Problematic files await the Sudanese government

Iraq: Problematic files await the Sudanese government

10-29-2022

Yesterday, Friday, the government of the new Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani, began its constitutional duties, in the ninth Iraqi government to be formed in the country since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, after a political crisis that extended for more than a year, amid several challenges.

The new government, which obtained, on Thursday evening, the confidence of Parliament by a majority of more than 250 deputies out of 329, with the boycott of the majority of civil forces and personalities, acknowledged the existence of 23 ministerial portfolios, but only 21 of them were voted on, due to the continuing differences over two ministries from The Kurdish forces share, namely, reconstruction and the environment.

Problematic files await Sudan
If the position of the Sadrist movement opposing the government is the main concern of Al-Sudani and his team, the problematic files included in the government program, on the basis of which it gained confidence, also emerge as obstacles that the new prime minister is likely to encounter.

It is expected that these various factors will affect the life of the government, noting that the ministerial curriculum paper agreed upon by the political blocs stipulated amending the Parliamentary Elections Law within three months and holding early elections within a year. Which was considered as the first coup by the “coordinating framework” forces against previous pledges regarding forming the government and then going to early elections.

A former deputy close to Al-Sudani: Going with the Sadrists and keeping them calm is the first challenge

The new cabinet was distributed in the manner of quotas applied in all previous governments, but the presence of the “Popular Mobilization” in this government seemed stronger than the last three governments (Haider Al-Abadi, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Mustafa Al-Kazemi).

The leader of the “Jund al-Imam” faction, Ahmed al-Asadi, which is one of the armed groups allied to Iran and has an armed wing fighting alongside the Syrian regime, took over the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Also, Naim al-Aboudi, a leader of the “Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq” militia, led by Qais al-Khazali, was chosen as Minister of Higher Education, and he holds a master’s degree and a doctorate from the Islamic University of Lebanon.

Evan Faiq Jabro, the sister of the leader of the “Babylonian” militia, Rayan Al-Kildani, remained Minister of Immigration. Ahmed Al-Mubarqa, an official in the “Afaaq” satellite channel, owned by former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, took over the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Al-Sudani’s government included ministers from the government of his predecessor, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, as Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein remained in his position, Khaled Battal moved from the Ministry of Planning to the Ministry of Industry, and Saleh Al-Hasnawi, Minister of Health in Haider Al-Abadi’s government, returned to the same ministry in the new government.

Al-Sudani faces a “big rock”, as described by observers, represented by the presence of the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr, especially since the latter is not satisfied with Al-Sudani and his government, the mechanism for distributing ministries to parties, and the methods for selecting ministers.

Al-Sudani faces other challenges, such as the uncontrolled weapon in the hands of armed groups and the need to control it, which is the demand of the angry protesters, in addition to preparing for the upcoming elections, which the emerging entities and the Sadrist movement hope to be within less than two years at the most, starting from the date of the work of the new government.

On how Al-Sudani faced these challenges, a former deputy, close to him, considered in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “going along with the Sadrists and keeping them in a state of calm is the first challenge to the new government, and failure means many scenarios, the best of which may be the resignation of the Sudanese government and the worst of which is a street confrontation. between the Sadrists and supporters of the coordination framework that supports the government.”

He stressed that “it should not be expected that Al-Sudani will resolve all the many challenges to the government, and it was a mistake to put it in his electoral platform, but political pressures forced him to do so.” It was remarkable in Al-Sudani’s program that he mentioned the cities occupied by armed factions that prevent the return of their people, such as Jurf al-Sakhr, al-Auja, Yathrib, al-Uwaisat, the villages of Diyala, Aziz Balad, Sinjar and many other areas, pledging to return their people to their homes.

The former MP added that “the file of displacement, the expulsion of armed factions from the cities they control, compensation for the victims of terrorist operations and military mistakes in them, the file of the disappeared and the kidnapped, in addition to the terms of the file of the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil, such as Article 140 and the oil and gas law that has been stuck for years, as well as Regarding the health crisis, addressing the return of ISIS, revealing the killers of the demonstrators (who participated in the October 2019 uprising) and holding them accountable, these are all files imposed on the Sudanese by various Sunni and Kurdish political forces. He pointed out that “Shiite political parties have put the file of ending the American presence on the Sudanese table once again.”

For his part, another member of the “Victory” coalition, led by Haider al-Abadi, who decided not to participate in the government, confirmed in an interview with “The New Arab”, that “the Sadrist movement refused to communicate with the Sudanese in the past days that preceded the session of granting confidence, and this is worrying. Extremely”.

For his part, the independent deputy in the Iraqi parliament, Basem Khashan, indicated that “the file of corruption and looting of state funds is the biggest file that the Sudanese must pursue.”

In an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, he considered that “the Sudanese government will not deal with the files demanded by the Iraqis, but will be a government that does not differ from the governments of Nuri al-Maliki, Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Mustafa al-Kazemi, because what is built on falsehood is false.” He expected that “it will spoil some of the successes in the previous government, especially in the file of foreign relations, which the armed factions reject.”

Obstacles to the Sudanese
On the other hand, the representative of the Coordination Framework, Rafiq Al-Salihi, said in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “the most prominent obstacles that the Sudanese will face is the corruption that permeates the state, which is protected from internal and external parties.”

Al-Salihi added that “the Sudanese will face great obstacles in the file of health, electricity and services, especially since these files have been neglected for years, despite the spending of large funds on them, especially since he expressed his intention to find the development of these files with tangible things by the citizens.”

Mohie Al-Ansari: Isolation is the biggest case that the consensus government will suffer from in the near future

As for the independent MP Hadi Al-Salami, he saw that the electricity and services files will be the most prominent thing that the Sudanese will face in his government. In an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, he pointed out that “corruption is linked to all files, in addition to controlling uncontrolled weapons, which constitute a real threat to the state and civil peace.”

Al-Salami explained that “the most prominent challenges that Sudan will face is working to create the appropriate atmosphere for holding early parliamentary elections, especially setting a period of time for this step within its government curriculum, and this issue requires an effort to conduct fair elections away from political money and uncontrolled weapons.”

On his part, Mohie Al-Ansari drew attention to: The head of the “Iraqi House” movement, which is part of the “Forces for Democratic Change” coalition, pointed out that “the Sudanese government was born dead, and all its turbulent and unstable inputs indicate that, as it comes today in a politically, popularly, regionally and internationally charged atmosphere.”

He explained in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “isolation is the biggest case that the consensus government will suffer from in the near future, and the gap will increase between society and the ruling authority that has repeated the same scenario as the Abdul-Mahdi government, and its most prominent challenges will be what the coordinating framework forces called for and considered it a failure of Al-Kazemi’s government.” , such as the exchange rate file , job opportunities, and others.”

As for political analyst Ahmed Al-Sharifi, he stressed that “the Sadrist Rock, which is the huge human mass that knows how to storm the Green Zone and sit in it, is the most feared challenge by the Sudanese, as despite the attempts of the coordinating framework forces to create a safe atmosphere for the new government, all possibilities are open.” of the Sadrists.

And he considered, in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that “the Sudanese are no different from Mustafa Al-Kazemi, as he wants to remain leading what the parties want in exchange for his remaining in power, but what differs is that the political crisis is currently complicated by the presence of the Sadrist movement outside power, which is the reason that may create political crises.” In the future, all the files that the Iraqis hope to open and guarantee their results will be disrupted.”

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