IRAQI GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION OPERATES OUTSIDE ‘GREEN ZONE’ FOR 1ST TIME
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15.10.2018


Asharq Al-Awsat (15 October 2018)

Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa

Iraq's Prime Minister-designate Adel Abdul Mahdi decided on Sunday to move his office outside Baghdad’s Green Zone, an unprecedented step in the country’s political scene. 

Since the removal of former president Saddam Hussein in 2003, all four previous prime ministers, including Ayad Allawi, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Nouri al-Maliki and Haider al-Abadi had kept their offices inside the 10-square-kilometer fortified area in the Karkh district of central Baghdad.

The Green Zone is home to the offices of the president, prime minister, parliament, the country’s top courts and the US embassy.

“The Prime Minister-designate resumed his mission at his new office located in the area facing Baghdad Central Station, Karkh,” Abdul Mahdi’s office said in a statement.

It added that the PM-designate held, at his new office, several meetings on the formation of the new government and its program.

The Green Zone has been repeatedly targeted over the years, especially at the height of the 2006-2008 civil conflict.

Abdul-Mahdi was appointed PM-designate to form Iraq’s new government after months of wrangling among parties.

At his new office, Abdul Mahdi met Sunday with John Sullivan, deputy to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is on a three-day visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

“During the meeting, they discussed strengthening relations between the two countries, the situation in Iraq and the region as well as the importance of continuing international support for Iraq in reconstruction after the victory over terrorism,” a statement from Abdul-Mahdi’s office said.

Separately, Sadrist movement leader Muqtada Sadr’s calls that public interests should precede party interests drove on Sunday a wave of criticism from concerned parties.

In reference to Iraq’s Sunnis and Sunni politicians, Sadr said quotas should be avoided while forming the next government.

The Iraqi Decision Alliance led by Ossama al-Nujaifi said on Sunday it backed Sadr’s position.

“We support this view because we believe that elections did not represent the society and therefore, we cannot set the interests of the Sunnis according to the faction that won the last elections,” Atheel al-Nujaifi, a leader in the Alliance, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

However, National Axis bloc official Yehya al-Kabisi said he was against Sadr’s calls.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1426981/iraqi-government-administration-operates-outside-%E2%80%98green-zone%E2%80%99-1st-time




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