US Ambassador to Iraq Calls for Cabinet Formation to Restore Stability

President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid and the Prime Minister-designate during their meeting on Wednesday (Iraqi News Agency)
President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid and the Prime Minister-designate during their meeting on Wednesday (Iraqi News Agency)
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US Ambassador to Iraq Calls for Cabinet Formation to Restore Stability

President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid and the Prime Minister-designate during their meeting on Wednesday (Iraqi News Agency)
President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid and the Prime Minister-designate during their meeting on Wednesday (Iraqi News Agency)

US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski has increased her visits to PM-designate Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani, President Abdul-Latif Rashid and Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi to discuss the formation of the government.

Informed political sources said that the ambassador was “keen that the political parties succeed in forming the cabinet without delay.”

The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Romanowski has emphasized during her meeting with Al-Sudani the necessity to form a government that “contributes to restoring security and political stability in the country,” noting that it was essential to “benefit from the experience of previous governments, because failure this time will have serious repercussions on Iraq.”

Iraqi leaders tried to reassure the US ambassador in Baghdad that the new government would maintain its strategic relations with Washington, as reported by an official in Al-Fateh Alliance.

Al-Sudani also told the German ambassador to Iraq, Martin Jaeger, that his prospective government would seek to “build balanced relations with its regional and international surroundings.”

A source close to the prime minister-designate told Asharq Al-Awsat that the cabinet line-up would be “a mixture of party figures, independents and technocrats.”

The sources added that Al-Sudani would not face obstacles in choosing the ministers, because the affiliated parties presented him with many possible candidates. The source explained that the premier-designate had asked the party leaders to overcome the political and administrative obstacles in order to form the government as soon as possible.

The “Will of the State” coalition, which includes the Coordination Framework, the Sovereignty Coalition and the Kurdish forces, announced earlier that it had set next Saturday as a date for voting on the new government.

However, a source from the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance told Asharq Al-Awsat that the date could be postponed for a few days because Al-Sudani received only the candidates of the Shiite parties and was waiting for the lists of ministers from the rest of the allies.

Rashid received Al-Sudani on Wednesday. “The two sides stressed the importance of unifying national ranks and working to form a new government that would challenges,” read a statement by the president’s media office.



Hezbollah's Safieddine 'Unreachable' Since Friday

A damaged vehicle lies amidst the rubble in the aftermath of the Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in the Chiyah area of Dahiyeh, Beirut, October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
A damaged vehicle lies amidst the rubble in the aftermath of the Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in the Chiyah area of Dahiyeh, Beirut, October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
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Hezbollah's Safieddine 'Unreachable' Since Friday

A damaged vehicle lies amidst the rubble in the aftermath of the Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in the Chiyah area of Dahiyeh, Beirut, October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
A damaged vehicle lies amidst the rubble in the aftermath of the Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in the Chiyah area of Dahiyeh, Beirut, October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki

Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs since Friday have kept rescue workers from searching the site of an Israeli strike suspected to have killed Hezbollah’s anticipated next leader, three Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Saturday.
One of the sources said Safieddine, widely expected to succeed slain leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, had been unreachable since the strike on Friday.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.