Parliament approves appointments of Hayali and Araji as new defense, interior ministers
Iraqi Parliament .File photo.
The parliament, in the presence of more than 220 members, approved the appointment of Erfan al-Hayyali as defense minister. He was the training and operations director at the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Force. The assembly also voted for Qassem al-Aaraji, a member of the parliament’s security and defense committee, as interior minister. The process of selecting nominees for vacant government ministries ran amid intense political disputes over the past year, with various political players vying for a share in the cabinet and claiming right to them.
Former defense minister Khaled al-Obeidi was removed by a parliament vote in August 2015 over accusations of corruption, which he denied. He had traded accusations of corruption with parliament speaker Salim al-Jubouri. The latter accused Obeidi of abusing his post to settle political accounts.
Former interior minister Mohamed al-Ghabban resigned in July 2015, hours after a deadly booby-trapped car explosion killed 200 people in Baghdad’s region of Karrada. He cited interventions in his competences among reasons for his resignation, and said the government had failed to make drastic improvements to the security system.
The ministry has been chaired temporarily by Okeil al-Khazaali since July 2016.