Iraq’s president tasks Adnan al-Zurfi with forming new government: state media

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s President Barham Salih has tasked Adnan al-Zurfi with forming a new cabinet following weeks of discord and disagreement between Iraq’s parliamentary blocs. 

Al-Zurfi is the former governor of the holy city of Najaf and the serving leader of the Nasr-led bloc in the Iraqi parliament. The Nasr (Victory) party itself is led by Haider al-Abadi, who was Iraq’s prime minister from 2014 to 2018.

The news was first reported by the state-owned Alsabaah newspaper on Tuesday afternoon. 

Mohammed Allawi withdrew as prime minister-designate in early March after Sunni and Kurdish parties refused to approve his cabinet of independent technocrats and Shiite blocs jostled for influence. 

His failure means caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who resigned in late 2019 following months of nationwide protests, has been forced to stay on in office without budget-drafting powers.

Threatened by the collapse of world oil prices and gripped by a coronavirus outbreak it is ill-equipped to cope with, Iraq urgently needs to resolve is long-running political crisis.

Salih’s office confirmed the news in a thread of tweets and wished the new prime minister-designate “success”.  

Al-Zurfi “should work on conducting snap and fair elections, meet the demands of Iraqis, meet the demands of peaceful protesters by carrying out the required reforms, and preserve the sovereignty, stability, and security of Iraq,” the presidency said.

According to Rudaw’s reporter in Baghdad, anti-government protesters have already rejected al-Zurfi as yet another member of the old establishment they aim to overthrow. 

“We strongly reject him. We as protesters and revolutionaries have had martyrs and injuries. People have been hurt and the budget has not been passed,” one protester told Rudaw in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the movement.

Protesters set fire to al-Zurfi’s office in Najaf on January 19.