Coordination Framework Approaches Iraq’s Sunnis, Kurds to Form Govt without Sadr

Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in Baghdad, Iraq September 2, 2022. (Reuters)
Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in Baghdad, Iraq September 2, 2022. (Reuters)
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Coordination Framework Approaches Iraq’s Sunnis, Kurds to Form Govt without Sadr

Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in Baghdad, Iraq September 2, 2022. (Reuters)
Iraqi demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest in Baghdad, Iraq September 2, 2022. (Reuters)

The Shiite pro-Iran Coordination Framework carried out over three days last week negotiations with Sunni and Kurdish forces to form a new government in Iraq.

The Framework is keen on forming the new cabinet as its rival, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Sadrist movement has yet to comment on the efforts.

The Framework held talks with the Sunni Azm and Sovereignty alliances and the Kurdish Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Leaks to the media confirmed speculation that the Sunnis and Kurds have set a number of conditions to join the Framework in the new government.

It remains to be seen whether the Sadrists and Framework will meet after the Arbaeen commemoration on Saturday.

An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the negotiations between the Framework, Sunni and Kurdish forces are not official, rather the latter two parties are “testing the waters” with the former to see whether it would achieve repeated demands that have been ignored for years.

The source said the negotiations are significant because they go to show how far Sadr’s former allies – the Sunnis and Kurds – have grown distant from his movement.

Sunni conditions at the talks included introducing amendments to the parliamentary electoral law within three months, holding parliamentary elections within one year at the latest, amending the counter-terrorism law and reconstructing liberated provinces.

They also demanded the withdrawal of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) from these provinces, uncovering the fate of abducted individuals, and returning the displaced to Jarf al-Sakhir.

These demands and others had fallen on deaf ears in previous governments - that were dominated by Shiite powers – due to political disputes.

Political observers believe the Framework is determined to forge ahead and hold a parliamentary session soon to pave the way for the election of a president and appointment of a new prime minister.

Regardless of what it intends to do, it seems unlikely that it will go far if the Sadrists remain silent, which is also unlikely.

The Framework has an arduous task ahead with negotiating with the Sunnis and Kurds over meeting the demands of the former and having the major Kurdish parties reach an agreement over a presidential candidate.

Should an agreement be reached, then the necessary quorum may be met at parliament to elect a president.

Should the Sadrists have a different say on the matter, then any agreement sought by the Framework with the Sunnis and Kurds will collapse. This is especially true if Sadr were to again mobilize his supporters on the street.

This may again lead to intra-Shiite clashes, further complicating the already complex scene in Iraq and opening it to new unpredictable possibilities.



Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

For the first time in nearly two years of war, soup kitchens in famine-stricken Sudan are being forced to turn people away, with US President Donald Trump's aid freeze gutting the life-saving schemes.

"People will die because of these decisions," said a Sudanese fundraising volunteer, who has been scrambling to find money to feed tens of thousands of people in the capital Khartoum.

"We have 40 kitchens across the country feeding between 30,000 to 35,000 people every day," another Sudanese volunteer told AFP, saying all of them had closed after Trump announced the freezing of foreign assistance and the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Women and children are being turned away and we can't promise them when we can feed them again," she said, requesting anonymity for fear that speaking publicly could jeopardize her work.

In much of Sudan, community-run soup kitchens are the only thing preventing mass starvation and many of them rely on US funding.

"The impact of the decision to withdraw funding in this abrupt manner has life-ending consequences," Javid Abdelmoneim, medical team leader at Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, told AFP.

"This is yet another disaster for people in Sudan, already suffering the consequences of violence, hunger, a collapse of the healthcare system and a woeful international humanitarian response," he added.

Shortly after his inauguration last month, Trump froze US foreign aid and announced the dismantling of USAID.

His administration then issued waivers for "life-saving humanitarian assistance", but there have so far been no signs of this taking effect in Sudan and aid workers said their efforts were already crippled.

In what the United Nations has decried as a global "state of confusion", agencies on the ground in Sudan have been forced to halt essential food, shelter and health operations.

"All official communications have gone dark," another Sudanese aid coordinator told AFP, after USAID workers were put on leave this week.

The kitchens that have survived "are stretching resources and sharing as much as they can", he said.

"But there's just not enough to go around."

As one of the few independent organizations still standing in Sudan, MSF said it had been fielding requests from local responders to quickly step in.

However, "MSF can't fill the gap left by the US funding withdrawal," Abdelmoneim said.

The United States was the largest single donor to Sudan last year, contributing $800 million or around 46 percent of funds to the UN's response plan.

The UN estimates it currently has less than 6 percent of the humanitarian funding needed for Sudan in 2025.

Over 8 million people are on the brink of famine in Sudan, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Famine is expected to spread to at least five more areas of Sudan by May, before the upcoming rainy season is likely to make access to food all the more difficult across the country.