After five months of vacancy in power, Iraq adopted a new government on the night of Wednesday May 6 to Thursday May 7. In front of masked and gloved deputies due to the coronavirus, Moustafa al-Kazimi, 53, a former intelligence chief who entered both Washington and Tehran, was sworn in with 15 of his ministers.

The portfolios - crucial and coveted by many political parties - of Foreign Affairs and especially Petroleum, in the second producer country of OPEC, are still vacant, like five others.

As of Thursday, the new government will have to work to reassure the Iraqis between generalized technical unemployment - and therefore loss of income - because of confinement, oil revenues divided by five in a year and the idea mentioned by Baghdad of printing dinars Iraqis which raises fears of a massive devaluation.

Turn the page

But also try to reconnect with the most fragmented political class in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. By changing government - for the first time in office since the Americans overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003 - Baghdad wants to turn the page on the year and a half of Adel Abdel Mahdi's power.

Mustafa Kazimi will have to speak again with Americans, whose troops under the blow of an order of expulsion from the Parliament never implemented and who were once again targeted by three rockets on Wednesday morning.

An appointment is set for a "strategic dialogue" in Baghdad with an American delegation in June. The two sides will then have to renegotiate the precious American exemptions that allow Iraq to buy Iranian energy while avoiding Washington sanctions.

Interposed battlefield

In January, the United States almost threw Iraq into chaos by assassinating Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at the gates of Baghdad airport. Moustafa Abdel Mahdi, helpless, could neither move the two active powers away from their interposed battlefield that Iraq has become nor initiate the reforms necessary for political and economic recovery.

Not only does Moustafa Kazimi inherit a dilapidated country, but also a 2020 budget still not adopted and already divided by three. With the vertiginous fall of oil, the country's only source of currency, its government will be that of austerity.

Enough to reopen the threat of a revolt while the embers of that of October still incubate, especially on Tahrir Square in Baghdad where a handful of diehards are still camped. Mustafa Kazimi promised them early elections but no horizon seems to be taking shape and the outgoing Prime Minister himself took five months to leave his post despite his resignation.

In the immediate future, like the rest of the world, Iraq must face Covid-19 disease - already 102 dead - while it is still trying to do away with the cells of the Islamic State group which are still striking.

With AFP

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