Neither Maliki nor Amiri will nominate themselves for prime minister: Shiite Coordination Framework
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Shiite Coordination Framework (SCF) announced on Tuesday that neither Nouri Al-Maliki nor Hadi Al-Amiri would nominate themselves for the position of prime minister.
The SCF made the statement following a meeting it held in Baghdad on Tuesday to discuss Iraqi government formation and nominating a candidate for prime minister.
"A candidate for prime minister should be nominated as soon as possible," read the SCF statement. "The candidate should represent all the Shiite political parties under SCF."
The SCF agreed to have all the Shiite political parties under its umbrella jointly make the new incoming prime minister's decisive and strategic economic and political decisions and only leave the administrative affairs to him and his cabinet.
"Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's government has no power to hold any international agreements as its term has already ended, and it is currently only a caretaker government," read the SCF statement.
The SCF parties also agreed to establish the qualifications required for candidates seeking ministerial positions in the incoming cabinet. Those requirements will be applied to all candidates, including Kurds and Sunnis.
The SCF parties expressed their willingness to approve candidates nominated by the Sadrist Movement for ministerial positions.
The SCF also condemned espionage and leaks, saying such methods are against the ethics and values of Iraqi society.
"The way to verify these leaks is entrusted to the judiciary, and everyone has to resort to it," the statement added.
The statement was issued after purported audio recordings of Maliki were leaked. In the recordings, Maliki appeared to strongly attack the Sadrist Movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr, vowing to thwart his project and stating that Iraq will enter a "fighting phase".
The audio recordings were published by the American-based Iraqi journalist Ali Fadhel. Maliki denied the authenticity of what was attributed to him, claiming it was "fabricated".
Sadr accused Maliki of threatening him with death and inciting Shiite-Shiite fighting. He called on him to retire from politics and surrender himself to the judiciary.
"After these destructive ideas, he [Maliki] has no right to lead Iraq in any way because he will cause more damage and destruction for Iraq and its people," Sadr said.