ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Efforts are intensifying to expedite pending appointments in the Iraqi government cabinet ahead of the Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s anticipated visit to the White House, an official said Sunday, as nine out of 23 ministerial positions in Zaidi’s government remain vacant.
“There are attempts and pressure to finalize the governmental cabinet ahead of the visit,” Abu Mithaq al-Masari, member of Badr Organization’s political bureau, told Rudaw.
He explained that the parliament is in legislative recess until July. “Maybe the political factions can reach an agreement [about the positions] so that an extraordinary session could be held [for a confidence vote’,” he noted.
The Iraqi premier is set to visit Washington in mid-July, according to the government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi, who spoke to Rudaw on Saturday.
“The files concerning the strategic relations between the two countries will be discussed during the visit. The agenda begins with economic issues because the current Iraqi government’s vision is that the economy is the engine of the state,” he said.
US President Donald Trump called Zaidi after he gained parliamentary approval for his cabinet, congratulating him on his appointment while also extending an invitation for a White House visit.
Zaidi and 14 ministers of his cabinet were voted by the parliament in late April to form the Iraqi government. However, in addition to keeping four candidates outside the vote due to outstanding political disagreements, five of his present nominees were rejected.
Speaking to Rudaw about the pending appointments, Harem Kamal Agha, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said intra Sunni and Shiite disputes are impeding the government formation process.
Based on political agreements, the ministry of interior will be given the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework - which consists of 12 factions - and the defense ministry is allocated to Sunnis.
Other unvoted ministries are culture and youth, planning, higher education, labor, migration, and sports. The housing ministry is reserved to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), whose candidate was rejected in the first vote.
Meanwhile, Aboudi said on Saturday they “treat the completion of the cabinet with utmost responsibility” so that the government can execute its program that was voted on in the parliament.
