Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi
Baghdad – News Time
Iraq’s nominee Prime Minister Mohammad Tawfiq Allawi is in the final stages of setting up his cabinet and will announce it on Sunday. Iraqi sources say Prime Minister Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi will inform President Berham Salih and resign Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi about the new cabinet and they will ask for an emergency meeting of parliament so that they can vote in confidence to the new cabinet. Iraqi President Berham Salih invited Mohammad Tawfiq Allawi to become the new prime minister on February 1and he is obliged to submit his Cabinet list for approval until March 2.
An adviser to Iraqi popular Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr warned last Sunday that the so-called Prime Minister, Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi, added the political elite to his cabinet. So they will face hell and they will be ousted from power within a few days. Protesters against the political elite in Baghdad and southern cities in the Iraqi capital have rejected the designation of Taufiq Allawi, protesting against the political elite. Muqtada al-Sadr has been supportive of the protest before, but last week announced the withdrawal of the protesters and the support of the designated prime minister.
Kazim Esvi, a senior adviser to Muqtada al-Sadr, warned that members of the political elite should not be included in the new cabinet. The Hashd al-Shaabi, especially the Shiite militias, should not be represented at all. He said in a statement last Sunday: If Syed Muqtada al-Sadr heard that Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi had given a single ministry to any side, especially to the Shiite armed factions. Then Iraq will become hell for them and the people will drive them out of power in three days. Kazim Esvi, speaking at a gathering, said that Muqtada al-Sadr had also refused to join the new cabinet of his block. He said that supporters of Saddar (Muqtada al-Sadr) would surround Baghdad’s green zone for approval in the non-partisan cabinet. Parliament, government offices and foreign embassies are located in this highly secured area of the Iraqi capital. Muqtada al-Sadr has been opposed to the formation of various Shi’ite militias, al-Hashd al-Shaabi, to fight ISIS in 2014. It also includes several deviant members of his presidential movement.
