BAGHDAD: Iraq’s president on Tuesday named ex-Najaf city governor Adnan Zurfi as the new prime minister, tasked with ruling a country hit by street protests, military unrest and now the coronavirus pandemic.
Also on Tuesday, the coalition and US officials said the US-led coalition will redeploy hundreds of troops from bases in Iraq including to outside the country.
The announcement came hours after another rocket attack targeted an Iraqi base where foreign troops are located, the 24th such attack in less than six months.
Lawmaker Zurfi, 54, is the former governor of Najaf and once belonged to the Dawa party, the longtime opposition force to ex-dictator Saddam Hussein who was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.
President Barham Saleh said he had nominated Zurfi to replace outgoing premier Adel Abdel Mahdi, who resigned in December, at a time when Iraq has been rocked by an unprecedented wave of anti-government rallies.
Zurfi, a member of the Nasr coalition led by ex-pm Haider al Abadi, now has 30 days to pull together a government, which must then be confirmed by parliament.
His nomination comes at an especially tumultuous time for Iraq, which has been battered by almost six months of street protests, collapsing oil prices, the novel coronavirus outbreak and the renewed rocket attacks which Washington blames on pro-Iranian forces.
A senior government source said that political factions had intensely debated names for days, seeking a “non-confrontational” figure in an attempt to preserve the status quo.
Iraq has since 2003 been governed under a sectarian power-sharing system characterised by intense horsetrading between sects and parties.
An earlier nominee, Mohammad Allawi, had failed to form a cabinet by March 2, triggering a new 15-day deadline for Saleh that was set to end late on Tuesday.
US TROOP redeployment
The US-led coalition will redeploy hundreds of troops from bases in Iraq, with one calling it a “historic” move.
“The coalition is re-positioning troops from a few smaller bases,” said coalition spokesman Myles Caggins.
The first redeployment was taking place on Tuesday from Qaim, the western base along the border with Syria, a coalition official told this agency.
“A transfer ceremony is taking place today to hand over the facilities to Iraqi forces, and the intent is that all coalition troops will be leaving Qaim,” the official said.
“It’s historic,” the official added, saying about 300 US-led coalition troops would be moved out of the base.
Some had already been redeployed to coalition positions in neighbouring war-ravaged Syria along with artillery, while others would be sent to other bases in Iraq or to Kuwait.
The official denied that the redeployment was a response to a spike over the last week in rocket attacks targeting foreign troops stationed across Iraq.
ROCKETS HIT BASE
The president’s announcement came just hours after a new pre-dawn rocket attack targeted foreign troops stationed in Iraq.
Two rockets hit the Besmaya base about 60 kilometres south of Baghdad, according to the Iraqi military, the US-led coalition and Nato, all of which have forces stationed there. — AFP
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