ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework on Friday postponed a meeting to decide on a prime minister candidate until Saturday, according to state media.
The bloc held its meeting at the residence of Humam Hammoudi, head of the Islamic Supreme Council (ISCI), after it had postponed a scheduled meeting from Wednesday to Friday.
The process has been marked by internal divisions among the alliance’s 12 constituent parties, which have yet to agree on a single candidate for prime minister, as the constitutional deadline is set to expire on Monday.
Ihsan al-Awadi, chief of staff to incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, and Basim al-Badri, a senior State of Law Coalition figure backed by Nouri al-Maliki, have been reported as leading contenders, officials told Rudaw on Tuesday.
The bloc initially put forward Maliki as its candidate, but US President Donald Trump firmly rejected his candidacy, saying Washington would “no longer help Iraq” if he were elected.
Notably, Abu Ala al-Wala’i, leader of the Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), attended the meeting after the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program earlier in the day announced a “reward of up to $10 million for information” on him, describing KSS as “an Iran-aligned terrorist group in Iraq.”
The statement added that KSS members “have killed Iraqi civilians and attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq, as well as U.S. military bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria.”
Iraqi pro-Iran armed groups were involved in Tehran’s retaliation against the US and Israel following their campaign against Iran on February 28, with several factions from the Tehran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ claiming responsibility for attacks on alleged US targets in the region, including in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi, in a statement on Thursday, called on the Coordination Framework to adhere to constitutional deadlines for naming the prime minister candidate, adding that parliament “has asked the Prime Minister-designate to submit his cabinet formation and government program 48 hours before the vote to enable members of the parliament to study them.”
Ahead of the meeting, Iraqi President Nizar Amedi on Friday also urged the Coordination Framework to stick to constitutional timelines for selecting its nominee. Amedi was elected on April 11, and under the constitution, once sworn in, the president has up to 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc - the Coordination Framework - with forming a government.
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