The Iraqi Cabinet of Ministers will not be fully operational – the heads of the oil and foreign ministries have yet to be appointed.
The Iraqi Parliament voted for the new government on Wednesday after six months of political bidding for positions within the government. This was reported by Reuters.
The new cabinet was headed by Iraqi intelligence chief and former journalist Mustafa al-Qadhimi. He did not get the full government – there are no heads of several ministries, as all possible candidates were rejected by parliament. However, the Prime Minister’s proposed candidates for heads of the Ministries of the Interior, Defence, Finance and Energy were endorsed by a majority of deputies. Voting for the Ministries of Oil and Foreign Affairs was postponed due to an inability to agree on who would head them.
Former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who led the interim government, resigned last November when anti-government protests engulfed the country. Demonstrators demanded their jobs and Iraq’s ruling elite resigned. The power that replaced Saddam Hussein after the U.S. invasion in 2003 was accused of corruption and bringing the country into economic collapse.
The battle for government portfolios since Abdul Mahdi’s resignation has prevented the two previous candidates for prime minister from forming their own government.