Antichrist Continues To Change Iraq’s Parliament

Negotiations aim to resolve attempt to unseat Iraqi finance minister

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The influential head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Ammar al-Hakim, is leading negotiations between Shiite and Sunni factions in an effort to end attempts to oust Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari from his post.

“Hakim began his attempts by talking to the Shiite National coalition in the parliament,” Mohammed Maasudi, an MP from the Shiite Citizen faction in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw. “Some elements within the coalition responded positively to Hakim’s call and meetings with others are still ongoing.”

Maasudi believes that the issue will be “decided after the Eid holidays.”

A controversial vote of confidence against the Kurdish politician Zebari was placed on the Iraqi parliament’s agenda on Tuesday and Thursday, but the vote could not go ahead as not enough lawmakers attended the parliamentary sessions to make the quorum.

Maasudi believes that persistent failures “by the parliament to meet quorum is a clear gesture that some of the parties have changed their minds, aiming to resolve this question by different means.”

There are 328 seats in the Iraqi parliament. For a no-confidence motion to pass, 165 lawmakers must vote against a minister. Only 100 votes have been collected against Zebari so far. Lawmakers, largely of the Shiite Daawa Party, accused Zebari, who has been finance minister since October 2014, of mismanaging the country’s finances, an accusation Zebari denies.

Maasudi, whose faction in parliament is led by Hakim, said that his group’s stance is clear to all. We are “against the withdrawal of confidence from Zebari, especially during the critical time Iraq is going through, including the poor economy and the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).”

By removing Zebari from his post “we will deepen entrust among the parties,” he suggests.

Hakim is known to have had good ties with Kurdish leadership as well as with political parties from all sides at different times. He sided with the Kurds in their struggles against the former Baathist regime.

Fadi Shamari, MP and spokesperson for the citizen faction, said that Zebari is the only Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) ally in the cabinet of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Therefore, “we will not vote on the no-confidence motion against Zebari since he has been successful in the parliament’s question-and-answer sessions” when he was summoned to the parliament.

Kurds hold 62 seats in the Iraqi parliament and three ministerial posts in Abadi's government.

Iraq, its parliament and its politicians have been buffeted by sit-ins and strikes over the past several months, ordered by powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has been leading a powerful campaign against official corruption.