Iraq’s Tajdeed Movement, headed by Iraq’s former Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi, has criticised the new government’s composition saying it doesn’t suggest that change is coming.
The Anadolu news Agency reported a statement issued by the movement as saying “the new government composition does not indicate that it will bring change not in form or shape”.
Despite its criticism, the movement believed that Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has a golden opportunity for success if he decides to break away from the policy of his predecessor Nouri Al-Maliki and from external pressures and to move seriously with courage and independence within the framework of a comprehensive national project.
Iraq’s new government:
- Haider Al-Abadi, prime minister
- Saleh Al-Mutlaq, deputy prime minister
- Hoshyar Zebari, deputy prime minister
- Bahaa Al-Araji, deputy prime minister
- Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, foreign minister
- Rowsch Nuri Shaways, finance minister
- Adil Abdul-Mahdi, oil minister
- Muhammad Iqbal, minister of education
- Hussain Al-Shahristani, minister of higher education
- Haider Al-Zamili, justice minister
- Mohammed Al-Bayati, minister for human rights
- Nasir Al-Issawi, minister of industry
- Qasim Al- Fahadawi, minister of electricity
- Salman Al-Jumaily, planning minister
- Tariq Kikhany, housing and construction minister
- Ahmed Al-Jubouri, minister of state for provincial affairs
- Abdul Karim Younis, minister of municipalities
- Baqir Jabr Al-Zubeidi, minister of transport
- Kadhim Al-Rashed, communications minister
- Abdel Falah Al-Sudani, labour and social affairs minister
- Adela Hussein Hammoud, health minister
- Qutaiba Al-Jubouri, environment minister
- Malas Mohammad Abdulkareem, trade minister
- Falah Hassan Zeidan, minister of agriculture
- Faryad Raundozi, culture minister
- Abdul-Hussein Abtan, minister of youth and sport
- Faris Yousif Jajou, minister of science and technology
The statement said the designate prime minister has sought to “please the elite who benefit from the dysfunctional conditions, therefore the cabinet gave up on the principle of rationalisation of expenditure through expanding ministerial and presidential posts without good reason”, arguing that this is one of the manifestations of corruption, which Al-Abadi promised to eliminate.
The movement believed that Al-Abadi has followed the approach of his predecessor Al-Maliki by clinching his grip on sensitive security positions in the interior and defence as an expression of an authoritarian approach which brought disasters on Iraq.
It pointed out that the new government ministerial statement was “free from any definite or clear signs on how the new prime minister plans to address the most serious challenges”.
The statement said that Al-Abadi “repeated Al-Maliki’s speech by relying on security solutions to address complex issues with religious, cultural and social dimensions, sentencing himself to failure”.
On Monday, the Iraqi Parliament granted its confidence to the new government of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi.
The MPs assigned former PM Nouri Al-Maliki and former Parliament Speaker Osama Najafi and former PM Ayad Allawi as vice-presidents of the Republic.
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