Iraq’s PM plans to present remaining 9 candidates for cabinet posts to Parliament Sunday:

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, plans to present 9 candidates for the remaining cabinet posts to the Parliament on Sunday, reiterating that the candidates for the security cabinet posts, including the Interior, Defense and National Security Ministers, would not take a long time, according to a statement by Maliki during his meeting on Saturday with the Chairman of the Supreme Islamic Council, Shiite Cleric Ammar al-Hakim. “Prime Minister Maliki intends to attend the Parliament’s meeting on Sunday, to present the names of 9 candidates for the remaining civilian cabinet posts, reiterating that the nomination of candidates for the security ministries won’t take long,” the statement quoted Maliki as having stated during his meeting with Ammar al-Hakim in Baghdad on Saturday. The Parliament had granted trust to the new cabinet, led by Nouri al-Maliki, comprising 42 ministries, among them 12 ministries of state, whilst Maliki kept the Ministries of Interior, Defense and National Security temporarily under his administration on “acting” basis, whilst he assigned a number of other cabinet posts on “acting” basis as well, pending the final nomination of their original ministers. The statement, issued by the Ammar al-Hakim’s office on Saturday evening, said that Hakim and Maliki had called in their meeting for “full commitment by all political parties for the agreement announced recently, calling for the filling of all security and civilian cabinet posts in a short period, in order to “address a good message for all Iraqis, about the new government’s activity and its concentration on the services element.” The statement quoted Hakim as “having reiterated necessity to keep away from political harassment and wrangling, that have taken a long time, and to concentrate on the issues that satisfy and and serve the Iraqi citizen,” adding that “both sides expressed similar viewpoints towards the current regional developments and their impacts on the Iraqi arena.” Maliki, on his part, the statement pointed out “had described his meeting with Hakim, as part of important meetings to discuss the joint issues on the political arena and necessity to build the state and settle all the issues facing the political process, taking into consideration that both parties represent an active power, able to have an impact on the course of events, in order to help Iraq Iraq to come out of the political process safely.” Noteworthy is that differences exists since weeks among different political parties about the candidates for the cabinet’s security posts that are still vacant, especially the Interior and Defense posts, the first being the share of the National Coalition, led by Nouri al-Maliki and the second of al-Iraqiya Coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, with each side rejecting the candidate of the other. Differences also exist on the draft-law for the National Council of Strategic Policies (NCSP), scheduled to be led by al-Iraqiya Leader, Iyad Allawi, who demanded granting it broad authorities, including executive authorities, whilst the National Coalition rejects that, pushing al-Iraqiya members to take opposite attitudes, in the event of the settlement of the Council’s issue and continuation of delaying the implementation of Arbil Agreement, supported by the said parties, presented by north Iraq’s Kurdistan Region’s President, Massoud Barzani. IT / SKH 473