The Iraqi president raises the level of alert and warns of dangerous labyrinths

The Iraqi president raises the level of alert and warns of dangerous labyrinths

4-19-2022

BAGHDAD – Iraqi President Barham Salih warned Tuesday of “dangerous labyrinths” that await Iraq in the event that the political impasse continues, resulting from the failure to complete the formation of the new government, while Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi called on political forces to restore confidence and stop accusing and treason of belonging to the homeland, religion and doctrine.

Since the parliamentary elections that Iraq held on the tenth of last October, the political arena has witnessed sharp differences over the formation of the government. After about six months, the political forces were unable to elect the president of the republic, and to proceed with other procedures towards electing a new prime minister.

Saleh said, in a speech during the central celebration marking the forty-first anniversary of the establishment of the “Badr” organization, that “the current political blockage in the completion of the constitutional dues and the formation of a new government five months after the elections, has become a worrying and unacceptable matter, and if it continues, it leads to The country has slipped into dangerous labyrinths.”

The Badr Organization is one of the Popular Mobilization factions and is led by Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Fatah Alliance, who is close to Iran.

He added, “There are those who want the Iraqis to be preoccupied with internal conflicts that drain their strength and weaken their entity. The Iraqis cannot accept that, and they will not give up their right to a national state, for an independent and sovereign Iraq represents the interest of the Iraqis and the basis of their national project.”

He continued, “The early elections, which the people and their national forces wanted as a solution to achieve political and social stability, encountered obstacles that should not be ignored, and it is possible to overcome them with unity of word and give priority to the supreme national interest in this circumstance of complex regional and international transformations.”

He pointed out that “protecting the country requires a serious pause to address the mistakes that have accumulated due to circumstances and factors that led to the cracking of the system of governance, and requires acknowledgment of the need for reform and addressing the deficiencies through a new political contract that enables the Iraqis to build a real state with full sovereignty.”

Iraq is witnessing a severe political crisis after parliament failed on three occasions to elect a new president, after the blocking third of the Shiite coordinating framework forces loyal to Iran obstructed sessions that required two-thirds of the members to attend to complete the quorum.

The dispute between the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr (the winner of the legislative elections) and the leaders of the “coordinating framework” and forces allied with it, revolves around the method of forming the new government. from the Sunni component and the Kurdistan Democratic Party), while the leaders of the framework demand a consensual government in which all political forces participate.

In a similar speech, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, stressed that the political crisis related to the file of forming the government is hampering life in the country.

“We strive to find solutions, and unfortunately sometimes we strive to invent obstacles and political obstruction,” Al-Kazemi said.

Al-Kazemi continued, “Our people believe in the current system, true democracy, the peaceful transfer of power and the state, and there is a political crisis in the country, and we must admit that there are constitutional differences and inconsistencies in the management of the state.”

He stated that “before proceeding to a political solution, we must think about restoring confidence and creating the atmosphere for that, and the political forces must stop accusing and treason of belonging to the homeland, religion and sect, because Iraq will not return to chaos, dictatorship and conflicts again.”

The Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Muhammad al-Halbousi, called for work to complete the constitutional entitlements and for Parliament to exercise its legislative role.

“We have to work to eliminate crises, develop state institutions, and overcome the political crisis to form the new Iraqi government,” al-Halbousi said.

The continuation of the political blockage portends the dissolution of Parliament and the move towards early elections, in the event of the repeated failure of the election of the new president.

In early April, al-Sadr gave the forces affiliated with the “coordination framework” 40 days to negotiate with the parliamentary parties, with the exception of his list, to form the government that has been faltering for months in the country, after the failure of the third parliamentary session to complete the presidential elections.

For nearly two weeks, the coordination framework has been leading efforts to convince the political forces and their allies, who make up the blocking third in the Iraqi parliament, including the Sadrist movement, with an initiative it had previously put forward, without revealing its details.

But al-Sadr refused a request to hold a new meeting with the leaders and representatives of the “Coordination Framework” coalition, in a move that seemed to be seeking to score points in the framework basket, without paying attention to the damage inflicted on the Iraqis by the continuation of the crisis.

The coordination framework rejected the deadline set by al-Sadr regarding the selection of a president of the republic and the formation of the new government in the country, stressing that he is not interested in setting time periods.

The delay in forming the government was reflected in the economic reality in the country, through the suspension of investment projects that the working class depends on, due to the lack of a financial budget for the current year 2022, in terms of the inability of the current government to present it to Parliament as a government of daily care.

And last Friday, hundreds of Iraqis went out in mass demonstrations in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and other provinces, in protest against the political crisis the country is witnessing, demanding a resolution to form the government and get out of the political blockage.

Warnings escalated during the past days of a wave of protests, due to the similar conditions in which Iraqis are currently living with their counterparts in 2019, when the largest protests erupted in the modern history of Iraq.

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