Iraq Parliament approves three new ministers, five more ministries remain vacant

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – After a majority vote on Tuesday, the Iraqi Parliament approved three more ministers while five other ministries remain vacant due to disagreements between parliamentary factions on the proposed candidates.

In Tuesday’s session, five minister-candidates were voted. Three of them were approved and the rest rejected, several lawmakers told Kurdistan 24.

The three new ministers were Qusai Suhel for the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Abdul-Amir Hamdani for the Ministry of Culture, and Nouri al-Dulaimi for the Ministry of Planning. They are scheduled to take oath on Thursday, according to lawmakers.

Both Khairaddin al-Tayi as a candidate for the Ministry of Education and Hana Emanuel Gorgis for the Ministry of Migration and Displacement failed to secure enough votes in the parliament as the majority of lawmakers rejected them.

The session was later postponed to Thursday as the candidates for five other ministries were not voted on due to disagreements between the major parliamentary blocs.

The quarrel was mostly on three main candidates: Falih Fayyadh for the Ministry of Interior, Faysal Jarba for the Ministry of Defense, and Dara Noreldin for the Ministry of Justice.

The Sairoon Coalition, which won the election, along with other factions insist that the candidates for the Ministries of Interior and Defense be neutral and technocrat like the rest of the ministers.

Meanwhile, other pro-Iran parliamentary blocs like al-Fatih and State of Law Coalition led by Hadi al-Amri and Nouri al-Maliki respectively continue to put forward Fayyadh who previously served as the head of the pro-Iran, Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia committee.

The disagreement on the candidate for the Interior Ministry is mainly between the large Shia blocs, while Sunnis conflict on the candidate for the Defense Ministry, and the same for Kurds regarding the Justice Ministry candidate.

The new Federal Government of Iraq was formed on Oct. 25 headed by Prime Minister Adil-Abdul Mahdi. The formation came six months after the country’s controversial May 12 national election.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany