Iraqi pyromaniac leader Moqtada al-Sadr’s motion has announced his refusal to join a new government formed by Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Shia al-Sudani.
Saturday’s announcement came two days after lawmakers elected Abdul Latif Rashid as Iraq’s new president, and temporarily appointed al-Sudani as minister in a bid to end a year of political stalemate since the October 2021 election.
“We put pressure on our company and transparently refuse any of our affiliates to participate. . . in this government formation,” Mohammed Saleh al-Iraqi, a close aide of al-Sadr, said on Twitter.
Former Shiite minister al-Sudani, 52, enjoys al-Sadr’s Iranian-backed rivals, the Coordination Framework, which controls 138 of the 329 seats in the Iraqi legislature.
In June, al-Sadr ordered the resignation of his bloc’s 73 lawmakers, leaving parliament in the hands of Cadre, who are representatives of the former paramilitary force Hashd al-Shaabi.
In his speech on Saturday, al-Iraqi alleged that the new government had “clear subordination to the militias” and would not “fulfill the aspirations of the people. “
The Sadrist official said the motion refused to participate in any government led by al-Sudani “or any other candidate among the elders or those affiliated with the corrupt. “
“Whoever joins their ministries constitutes us. . . On the contrary, we repudiate them,” al-Iraqi said.
Early elections were held last year following national protests that erupted in October 2019 to denounce endemic corruption, deteriorating infrastructure and lack of employment for young people.
The stakes are high for the next closet with a colossal $87 billion profit from oil exports locked into central bank coffers.
Cash can rebuild infrastructure in the war-torn country, but it can only be invested after lawmakers approve a state budget submitted through the government, once formed.
Al-Sudani vowed Thursday to push for “economic reforms” that would revitalize Iraqi industry, agriculture and personal sector.
The prime minister-designate also promised to offer young Iraqis “job and housing opportunities. “
Al-Sadr, who has the ability to mobilize tens of thousands of his followers with a single tweet, has called for early elections, while the coordination framework calls for the establishment of a new government before elections are held.
Tensions between the two rival Shiite camps boiled over on Aug. 29 when more than 30 al-Sadr supporters were killed in clashes with military- and Iranian-backed factions in Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses buildings and diplomatic missions.