Iraqi President Barham Salih is continuing to try to put together a new interim government today, appointing Adnan Zurufi as the latest PM-designate. He is seen as a US-favored candidate, and is already facing opposition from Iran.
Zurufi is the head of former PM Hayder Abadi’s parliament bloc. He is the second PM-designate since Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned in November. The first, Mohammed Allawi, recently resigned when he was unable to get parliament’s support to form a cabinet.
Zurufi’s history of political problems with Moqtada al-Sadr is going to make it a challenge for him to get parliament’s approval either. Zurufi had criticized Sadr publicly often during his time as a US-backed figure in Najaf.
Zurufi was born in Iraq, and returned to the country in April 2003 as a member of the US-funded Iraq Reconstruction and Development Council (IRDC). US administrator Paul Bremer later appointed Zurufi as the governor of Najaf.
Iraq’s anti-government protesters have been demanding a split from the traditional ruling class, objecting to them all being either in league with Iran, in league with the US, or some combination of both. Zurufi appears more of the same in that regard, and while a PM-designate would only be meant to prepare early elections, it’s going to be a tough sell.
Why Salih chose an obviously US-linked candidate at all isn’t clear. It may be an attempt to calm US military tensions in the country.
Another US puppet……also he won`t last long.
If he is anti Sadr, then we can expect hime to be gone before long.
I know a dumb Kurdish Shiite who supported the killing of Soleimani as the best action ever taken by Trump and predicted that the Iraqi PMU would be destroyed quickly and Iran would fail and peace tranquility would reign over Iraq. I keep messaging the idiot on FB about his idiotic claims but he won’t respond.