Al-Iraqiya to re-nominate candidate for Defense Minister’s post

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Al-Iraqiya bloc, led by Iyad Allawi, intends to re-nominate the candidacy of Khalid al-Obeiy for the vacant Defense Minister’s post in the current cabinet, Legislature for the National Alliance Qassim al-Aaraji reported on Monday. “There is an initiative by al-Iraqiya bloc to re-nominate the candidacy of Khalid al-Obeidy for the Defense Minister’s post, which is hoped will help to settle the issue of the security ministers in the cabinet,” Aaraji told IraqiNews.com news agency. He said that the National Alliance, led by Ibrahim al-Jaafary, “is continuing the process of trimming down the cabinet, to cover Deputy Prime Ministers, Hussein al-Shahristani and Saleh al-Mutlaq, each of whom shall be granted the post of minister in the cabinet.” Aaraji also said that Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had been assigned by the National Alliance to carry out dialogue with the other political forces regarding the trimming down of his cabinet. Noteworthy is that Prime Minister Maliki is keeping the three security ministers posts, covering the posts of Defense, Interior and National Security Ministers, under him on an “acting” basis, pending the final announcement of the candidates for the said posts. SKH (TI)/SR 520