Iraq’s Finance Minister Resigns Over Political Crisis

Date: 16 August 2022 - 21:36

News ID: ۱۰۵۷۹۸

BAGHDAD (AP/AFP) – Iraq’s finance minister resigned Tuesday, two government officials said, over the country’s worst political crisis in years involving an influential cleric and rivals.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Finance Minister Ali Allawi resigned during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday to protest the political conditions. They said Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar will become acting finance minister.

Allawi’s decision came weeks after members of influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s parliamentary bloc resigned from parliament and his supporters stormed the parliament building in Baghdad. Al-Sadr later demanded that parliament be dissolved and early elections held.

Al-Sadr won the largest share of seats in the election last October but failed to form a majority government that excluded his rivals.

Al-Sadr’s political rivals in the Coordination Framework, an alliance of parties, said earlier that parliament would have to convene to dissolve itself. They called the al-Sadr supporters’ storming of parliament a “coup” and have held demonstrations in support of the government.

Iraq’s political impasse, now in its 10th month, is the longest in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion reset the political order.

Sadr Backtracks on Call for Huge Protest

Meanwhile, al-Sadr backtracked Tuesday after earlier urging his supporters to join a massive rally as a standoff with his political rivals appeared to be getting worse.

The populist cleric’s announcement came amid behind the scenes talks aimed at steering Iraq out of crisis.

Sadr, whose supporters have been staging a sit-in protest outside parliament in Baghdad’s high security Green Zone for more than two weeks, had called for a “million-man demonstration” in the capital on Saturday.

But on Tuesday he announced on Twitter “the indefinite postponement of Saturday’s protest”.

“If you had been betting on a civil war, I am betting on preserving social peace. The blood of Iraqis is more precious than anything else,” Sadr said.

Late on Monday, a committee organizing demonstrations in support of the Coordination Framework also announced new gatherings, but without setting a date.