Kurdish nominee withdrew from Iraqi Oil Minister post

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – There is no political agreement in the newly formed Iraqi cabinet, according to the Kurdish nominee for the Iraqi Oil Minister post on Friday.

Recently, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi reshuffled the Iraqi government’s cabinet as part of his political and administrative reform and decreased the number of ministries to 16.

Within his technocrat cabinet, there were two Kurdish nominees including Professor Nizar Saleem Numan Doski for the Oil Ministry and Hoshiyar Amin for the Ministry of Municipality and Reconstruction.

On Friday, Doski decided to withdraw from his candidacy. “There is no political agreement regarding the form of the future government; therefore, I withdraw my candidacy for the Ministry of Oil position," he told reporters during a press conference held in Duhok, Kurdistan Region.

Abadi had selected Doski to be the Minister of Oil without prior agreement between the Kurdish political parties who previously warned Abadi that 20 percent of posts should belong to Kurds in the newly formed cabinet.

Doski, a 65-year-old petroleum geologist, was an instructor at the University of Mosul for 32 years before lecturing at the University of Duhok for 10 years.

On March 31, Abadi presented his reshuffled cabinet to the parliament, highlighting his “technocrat cabinet” to the Council of Representatives.

Abadi also gave a speech in the Iraqi parliament stating, “As promised, I am presenting a complete cabinet to the Council of Representatives...it now depends upon parliament’s decision to approve, reject or amend it.”

Reporting by Mewan Dolamari

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany