BAGHDAD (AFP/Reuters) – Iraq’s outgoing Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi appointed Hayam Nemat as acting finance minister after accepting Ihsan Abdul Jabbar’s resignation, the state news agency said on Saturday.
It added Nemat will fill the position until a new government is formed.
Iraq’s parliament on Thursday elected Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as president, who immediately named Mohammed Shia al-Sudani prime minister-designate, ending a year of deadlock after a national election in October last year.
Iraqi firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr’s movement on Saturday announced its refusal to join a new government being formed by the prime minister-designate.
“We stress our firm and clear refusal for any of our affiliates to participate... in this government formation,” Mohammed Saleh al-Iraqi, a close associate of Sadr, said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The 52-year-old former minister Sudani has the backing of Sadr’s rivals, the Coordination Framework, which controls 138 out of 329 seats in the Iraqi legislature.
In June, Sadr ordered the 73 lawmakers in his bloc to resign, leaving parliament in the hands of the Framework.
In his statement Saturday, Iraqi cleric charged that the upcoming government has a “clear subordination to militias” and would “not meet the people’s aspirations”.
The Sadrist official said the movement refused to take part in any government led by Sudani “or any other candidate from among the old faces or those affiliated with the corrupt”.
Snap elections were held last year following nationwide protests that erupted in October 2019 to decry endemic conditions, decaying infrastructure and the absence of services and jobs for youth.
The stakes are high for the next cabinet, with a colossal $87 billion in revenues from oil exports locked up in the central bank’s coffers.
The money can help rebuild infrastructure in the war-ravaged country, but it can only be invested after lawmakers approve a state budget presented by the government, once formed.
Sudani vowed on Thursday to push through “economic reforms” that would revitalise Iraq’s industry, agriculture and private sector.
The prime minister-designate also promised to provide young Iraqis “employment opportunities and housing”.