Qaani's Efforts to Reach Political Understandings in Iraq Stumble at Barzani, Sadr's Demands

A picture hows few Iraqi lawmakers attending a scheduled parliament session in Baghdad, with most major political blocs boycotting it. (AFP)
A picture hows few Iraqi lawmakers attending a scheduled parliament session in Baghdad, with most major political blocs boycotting it. (AFP)
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Qaani's Efforts to Reach Political Understandings in Iraq Stumble at Barzani, Sadr's Demands

A picture hows few Iraqi lawmakers attending a scheduled parliament session in Baghdad, with most major political blocs boycotting it. (AFP)
A picture hows few Iraqi lawmakers attending a scheduled parliament session in Baghdad, with most major political blocs boycotting it. (AFP)

The Iraqi parliament announced on Monday that the postponement of the presidential elections will not impact the work of the legislature.

The parliament had on Monday cancelled the polls as it lacked the quorum to hold a session.

Only 58 members out of 329 were present, which is less than the necessary two-thirds quorum needed to choose a new president for the mostly ceremonial post.

On Sunday many lawmakers said they would boycott the proceedings after the Supreme Court suspended a former foreign minister's presidential bid over graft allegations.

The court said on Sunday that the candidacy of Hoshyar Zebari, a veteran Iraqi Kurdish statesman, could not proceed until corruption charges from a separate 2016 stint as finance minister were dealt with.

The elections have been postponed indefinitely until political parties can resolve their differences.

Political sources said commander of Iran's Quds Forces, Esmail Qaani, has become involved in efforts to reached political understandings to resolve the presidential elections and form a new government.

He has held several meetings with officials in Baghdad, Erbil and Najaf to reach agreements with officials.

His efforts have, however, stumbled at Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani's insistence on Zebari's nomination. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is meanwhile insisting on the reelection of President Barham Salih.

Qaani has also stumbled at Sadrist movement leader cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's insistence on the formation of national majority government that excludes the rival Shiite pro-Iran Coordination Framework. He is also adamant on the exclusion of the State of Law coalition, specifically its leader former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Sadr emerged as the winner in the October parliamentary elections, giving him control over the formation of the government.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".