Iraqi intelligence chief Moustafa al-Kazimi was tasked by President Barham Saleh on Thursday to form a government after ex-Najaf governor Adnane Zorfi threw in the towel, pushed out by a rare political consensus against him.
Long seen as the man of the Americans in Iraq before reheating its relations with the great enemy of Washington, Tehran, main working power in Iraq, Moustafa al-Kazimi was accepted even before his appointment by almost all the political parties.
A consensus around Mustafa al-Kazimi
For several days, summit meetings have multiplied. Last week, Iranian General Esmaïl Qaani, the envoy in charge of Iraqi affairs since the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani in early January, even made the trip to Baghdad to bring together party leaders and discuss a replacement for Adnane Zorfi. And on Wednesday, the two major Kurdish parties announced that if the latter ever withdrew, their support for Mustafa al-Kazimi was already acquired. Proof of this consensus, Thursday, during the official designation ceremony at the presidential palace, most of the country's greatest politicians were present, which was not the case for previous candidates for the post of Prime Minister.
Pushed towards the exit without having even been able to convene the Parliament for a vote of confidence or to present a list of ministers, Adnane Zorfi had been designated on March 17. He only had time for a press conference to detail a program supposed to get the country out of the crisis in a country where the new coronavirus has already infected more than 1,200 people and cut in half the price of a barrel of oil and the budget for the state with him. Before him, Mohammed Allawi had failed after 30 constitutional days to obtain a quorum for a vote of confidence in Parliament.
Thirty days to form a government
Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced his resignation in December, as the country had been experiencing an unprecedented popular revolt since October 1 which plunged him into an unprecedented social and political crisis. The protest movement was put on hold by the global pandemic of Covid-19 but, in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, its epicenter, dozens of demonstrators continue to camp in tents, despite the total curfew decreed in the country until April 19 at least.
Moustafa al-Kazimi now has 30 days to present a cabinet to Parliament - the modalities of meeting under curfew are yet to be determined. The future government will then first of all have to adopt the 2020 budget, still not voted, in a context of historic plunge in crude prices - the only source of foreign currency in the country, second producer of OPEC. It will also have to try to reassure a population worried about a total collapse of a health system because of the coronavirus.
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