Iraqi Parliament to Convene Thursday to Complete Cabinet; Who Are the Potential Nominees?

Iraqi sources reported that parliament will hold a session on Thursday to complete the country's cabinet and announced the names of candidates for the ministerial posts.

Iraqi sources announced that the meeting of the Iraqi Parliament will be held on Thursday to complete the country's cabinet and the names of the candidates for ministerial seats.

According to Ambassador Arjan, quoted by al-Arabi al-Jadeed, Iraqi political sources announced that political factions and parties agreed with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to hold a parliament session on Thursday to complete the government cabinet.

According to this report, despite the passage of more than 5 months since the parliament's vote of confidence in the Al-Zaidi government, the completion of the cabinet has not yet been completed due to the differences between the Iraqi political currents regarding the distribution of positions and the selection of candidates for the remaining ministries.

Karim Alivi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that during the past few hours, after the coordination framework meeting with Al-Zaidi and with the agreement of the partners in the factions and parties, a final agreement was reached on holding the parliament session on Thursday of this week.

Alivi stated that during the cabinet completion meeting, 4 deputy prime ministers will also receive a vote of confidence.

He announced that the deputy prime ministers are Laith Al-Khazali (brother of Qais Al-Khazali), Mohammad Tamim (former minister of planning), Mohsen Al-Mandlawi (head of Asas coalition) and Faris Al-Brifkani.

According to this Iraqi parliamentarian, the candidates for the remaining ministries are:

Safa Al-Kanani for the Ministry of Sports and Youth

Haider Baha for the Ministry of Higher Education

Yasin Al-Eithawi for the Ministry of Culture

Mohammad Ali Al-Naimi for the Ministry of Planning

Ali Al-Dakhili for the Ministry of Tourism

Mohammad Sahib Al Daraji for the Ministry of Digital Technology.

Alivi emphasized that Ali al-Zaidi and all political groups have agreed with these names and these names will be approved in the meeting on Thursday, without any differences or obstacles.

He added that the prime minister had met with them separately in the past few days, before finalizing the agreement about the candidates.

These developments occur while the Iraqi parliament voted for Ali al-Zaidi's government in the middle of last May, after voting on 14 ministers out of a total of 23 proposed ministers; However, nine ministries have remained unassigned due to political differences over the names of the candidates and the way ministries are divided among forces and parties participating in the political process.