The Friday prayer leader of Najaf warns of “foreign threats” and urges Shiites to decide on the prime minister’s position.
The Friday prayer leader of Najaf warns of “foreign threats” and urges Shiites to decide on the prime minister’s position.
2026-04-17
Shafaq News – Najaf
On Friday, the Friday prayer leader of Najaf, Sadr al-Din al-Qubanchi, urged Shiite forces to expedite the nomination of their candidate for the position of Prime Minister and to proceed with forming the next government, warning against foreign pressures and the imposition of political quotas in this matter.
Al-Qubanchi said in his Friday sermon that “the Kurds and Sunnis have decided their position by electing the President of the Republic and the Speaker of Parliament,” stressing that “the ball is now in the Shiites’ court, as they must decide their position on electing the Prime Minister within a week,” which is the remaining constitutional period for submitting a candidate, after the Iraqi Parliament elected Nizar Amidi to the position of President of the Republic on the eleventh of April.
He added: “We extend our hands to our brothers within the framework, and we call upon them to unify their position and break the political deadlock,” stressing: “The Iraqi people are waiting; do not succumb to foreign pressures and threats, nor to political quotas, and let the interest of Iraq be your priority.”
The leadership of the Coordination Framework, which includes the ruling Shiite political forces in Iraq, is scheduled to hold a crucial meeting tomorrow, Saturday, at the home of the head of the National State Forces Alliance, Ammar al-Hakim, to choose the final candidate for prime minister, as the constitutional legal deadline shrinks, according to what the leader in the framework, Amer al-Fayez, told Shafaq News Agency yesterday, Thursday.
shafaq.com
