Iraqi Parliament fails for the third time to elect new President
March 31, 2022, 8:22 am

Iraqi Parliament fails for the third time to elect new President

Iraqis waving with Iraq flag/Shutterstock

The We For News reported that the Iraqi Parliament on Wednesday failed for the third time to elect a new President after failing to reach a quorum amid ongoing political disputes.

Xinhua news agency reported, citinag a statement by the Parliament’s media office, at the beginning of the session, the Speaker of the Council of Representatives (Parliament) announced that the quorum set at two-thirds of the house’s 329 members had not been achieved to elect the President.

The statement said that the Parliament continued its regular session and adjourned it without giving a new date.

Earlier, the Parliament set March 30 as the date for a new session to elect the President, with some 40 candidates competing for the post.

Traffic jam in Baghdad, Iraq (File photo: Pixabay)

The We For News said that the repeated failure to elect a new President came amid a political row among Shiite parties.

It mentioned that Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Sadrist Movement has vowed to form a new national majority from the winning parties in the elections, after his followers took the lead with 73 seats out of 329-seat Parliament in the elections held on Oct. 10, 2021.

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It should be noted that Al-Sadr’s pro-Iranian rivals and some other parties, however, want to form a consensus government to include all political blocs, as was the situation in the successive governments after 2003.

Source: wefornews

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.