Iraq president names new prime minister

03 October 2018
Former Iraq oil minister Adel Abd al-Mahdi has 30 days to form a new cabinet

Former Iraq oil minister Adel Abd al-Mahdi has 30 days to form a new cabinet, after being named Iraq’s new prime minister late on Tuesday, according to local media reports.

Abd al-Mahdi was appointed within hours of the selection of a new Iraqi president, Barham Salih, a Kurd, who himself was nominated by parliament following months of negotiations between Iraq’s political blocs.

Parliament has struggled to form a new government since national elections on 12 May. This is against a backdrop of unrest over corruption and the poor state of the country’s infrastructure, in particular the lack of electricity despite Iraq being a major oil producer.

Muhammad al-Halbusi had already named speaker of parliament on 15 September, meaning all three key positions have been filled. The new prime minister now has 30 days - until 2 November - to form a new government, awarding the key posts at the oil, finance, interior and defence ministries to Iraq’s power brokers in parliament for confirmation.

Al-Mahdi replaces the outgoing Haider al-Abadi, who was backed by the US after leading the fight against the Islamic State militants who captured swathes of territory in the north and west of Iraq in 2014.

An economist by training, al-Mahdi led the oil ministry from September 2014 to July 2016 when he was replaced by the current technocrat oil minister, Jabbar al-Luaibi. He also served as finance minister from 2004-2006.

Al-Mahdi’s relationship with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the north of Iraq could be critical in the coming months. During his tenure, al-Mahdi negotiated a deal with Ashti Hawrami, the KRG’s Minister of Natural Resources, that allowed federally produced crude oil to flow through the KRG pipeline to Turkey for the first time. However, the deal fell apart as the two sides argued over how to split the revenues.

But a new deal with the Kurds over exports could unlock significant volumes of currently unavailable crude oil from the north of Iraq.

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