On October 25, the Iraqi Council of Representatives approved the appointment of 14 ministers in the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi, in a session that witnessed a dispute over 8 important ministerial portfolios, including defense, interior and justice. And this dispute still exists between the parliamentary blocs on those portfolios. The reform bloc (Islah) strongly opposes the assumption of Faleh al-Fayadh portfolio of the Ministry of the Interior and the opposition of the Kurdistan Democratic Party to assign the portfolio of the Ministry of Justice for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, where they expressed dissatisfaction with not entering the hall of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, the problem of the portfolio of the Ministry of Defense is that the Sunni of Bina bloc (construction) is not convinced or Sunnis dissident from the list of nationality (Wataniya ) and those who joined the list of Bina , to the Feisal al-Jarba ,a candidate of Iyad Allawi, head of the reform list (Islah) for the post of Minister of Defense. Despite the second postponement of ten days for the session of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, negotiations are still arduous on the agreement on those portfolios. For his part, Adel Abdul Mahdi, Prime Minister of Iraq, still sticking to the names nominated for the portfolios and submitted to the House of Representatives, and is waiting to vote on it, he does not interfere with the conflict of blocs.
In order to end the crisis of the portfolio of the Ministry of the Interior , and during al-Nasir conference on the occasion of the victory over the terrorist organization of ISIS , Faleh Fayyad sent a message pointing out that the Prime Minister of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, is the only one who has the right to choose the candidate for the portfolio of the Ministry of the Interior, and this clear flexibility by Fayad, it is certainly coupled with political approaches and understandings , According to information obtained by the Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies, Fayyad is likely to return to take up his previous positions in the State as the presidency of the popular crowd and the National Security Adviser. This means that the crisis of the Ministry of the Interior portfolio is in the process of being resolved through the nomination of another person for that position after the cancellation of Adel Abdul-Mahdi last week decisions taken by the government of his predecessor Haider Abadi during the period of caretaker government, this included stripping of of Fayadh of his posts.
But the crisis of the candidate of the Ministry of Defense is still continuing, the Sunni of Bina (construction) and dissidents of the Wataniya coalition will not accept Faisal al-jarba, candidate of Dr. Iyad Allawi, the head of the national list (Wataniya), who represents the legitimacy of this list and not dissidents, some of them demanding the change of this candidate, including those who refuse that Dr. Ayad Allawi to nominate any person for the post of defense minister, no doubt that this is a real crisis within the blocs . However, there are eight candidates nominated to take up the portfolio of the Minister of Defense in the forefront of them: Faisal al-Jarba, followed by Dr. Salim al-Jubouri and Hamed Mutlaq and Hajam al-Hassani and others.
Tomorrow, the Iraqi Council of Representatives will hold its meeting, and the choice of the candidate of the Minister of Defense, Interior and Justice will be on its agenda. However, due to the divergence of positions and the contradiction between the interests of al-Islah list (reform) and al-Bina list (construction list), al-Islah list (the reform list) succeeded in extracting the governorate of Baghdad from the al-Bina list. ,however after the join of other MPs to the al-Islah list which strengthened its parliamentary position and increased the competition between al-Islah list and al-Bina ( construction ), and Iran’s inability to control some of the groups close to it within the blocks, we began to note the decline of the Iranian role in this regard. Therefore, we see in the Rawabet Center for research and strategic studies that the next session will not resolve the candidate of the Ministry of Defense and Justice, which will be to postpone the session of the Iraqi Council of Representatives to Thursday or to another day determined by the Council.
Iraqi Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies