President Salih calls on Iraq’s new government to meet demands
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi President Barham Salih stressed the need for the new government to be ready to meet the demands of Iraq’s people and overcome the country’s pressing challenges, in a speech on Wednesday commemorating the second anniversary of the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
“We are awaiting today an important occasion for the new parliament to convene to start forming the new government, which must be able to carry out its tasks and address the challenges facing our country and the region,” Iraq’s president told the audience in Baghdad, as he stressed the need to end the crises that have had a firm grip on Iraq, which include tensions in the region, remnants of terrorist groups, and increasing issues caused by the heating climate.
“Radical and structural reform must be achieved and meet the aspirations of the people and citizens in all parts of Iraq, through the consolidation of good governance,” he said, as reported by state media Iraqi News Agency (INA).
Elections were called in response to protests in the country beginning in October 2019, caused by widespread dissatisfaction with Iraq’s politicians and endemic corruption in the country.
At the end of last month, President Salih signed a decree calling members of the newly elected Iraqi parliament to meet on January 9, 2022, expressing his hope that an effective government will be formed to protect and serve in the interests of the country.
The Iraqi leader also celebrated the country’s liberation from the Islamic State (ISIS), declared territorially defeated in 2017. “We proudly recall the victory that was achieved over the terrorist Daesh and the failure of its malicious project that was threatening the region and the world,” he said, accrediting the triumph to “the police, the army, the crowd and the Peshmerga, and the fatwa of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.”
“The martyr leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Authority [PMF] and the great Iranian leader Haj Qasem Soleimani are two great influential figures in our country,” he said.
Thousands of PMF protestors filled the streets of Baghdad on January 1, 2022, the second anniversary of the death of Soleimani and al-Muhandis. They chanted “Death to America” as they honored their fallen general.
The president’s speech came just a day after a Sadrist bloc delegation met with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani in Erbil to discuss the formation of the new Iraqi government.
Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the largest-performing Sadrist movement, has emphasized several times that he wants a “national-majority” cabinet.
By Julian Bechocha