Iraq PM slams obstacles put before his government

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi condemned on Tuesday what he said were attempts to “tie the hands of his government”, and warned that everyone “will lose” due to the inability to form a new government for seven months, Anadolu has reported.

“Seven months after the election, a new government has not been formed, and some have been adopting the concept of obstruction and are striving hard to try and tie the hands of the current government instead of looking for solutions to the political deadlock,” said Al-Kadhimi during his weekly government session. “We preferred silence so as not to affect the context of the political understandings, and not to be a party to them.”

The prime minister’s remarks came two days after the Federal Supreme Court ruled that the draft emergency support law for food security and development was “unconstitutional”. The government submitted the project to parliament as a temporary solution to conduct state business, given that it is a caretaker government and cannot pass the budget for the current year.

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“In the absence of the general budget due to the delay in forming the government, we worked on the emergency food security support law to provide the minimum needs for the people in light of a global food crisis,” Al-Kadhimi explained. “The summer season is coming and we need to provide fuel for our electricity stations.”

Calling on Iraqi political leaders to “review their positions” because “the crisis between the political forces is a crisis of confidence, which led to a political blockage,” the Iraqi leader added, “However, there is an opportunity to restore and strengthen trust with the people, otherwise everyone will suffer a loss and there is no winner from losing confidence.”