This is an announcement that ends two months of uncertainty in Baghdad. Saturday 1st Iraqi President Barham Saleh appointed Shiite Mohammed Taoufiq Allaoui, 65, to state prime minister in February, state television reported. According to the Iraqi constitution, Mr. Allaoui has one month to designate the government to run the country until early parliamentary elections are held.
In a video posted on Twitter, Mr. Allaoui, who was twice minister of telecommunications (2006-2007, then 2010-2012), says that he will take into account the demands of the demonstrators. "If the political blocs try to impose their candidates on me, I will go out, come to speak to you, and I will reject this nomination", he added. In Iraq, governments are usually formed after a consensus between political rivals, after tough negotiations to share important portfolios.
Bloody repression
The outgoing head of government, Adel Abdel Mahdi, announced his resignation at the end of November, at the height of the wave of popular protest, the repression of which killed hundreds of people, against the background of a power struggle between pro and anti-Shia parties. Iranian. The demonstrators had rejected in recent days the name of Mr. Allaoui, tipped to be chosen to form the government.
For the angry Iraqis, the entire political system, set up by the United States sixteen years ago when they overthrew the dictator Saddam Hussein, and now under the control of their Iranian rival, must change. They want to redesign a power based on religious and ethnic affiliations that has made clientelism flourish. Above all, they want the complete renewal of a political class that has evaporated in sixteen years the equivalent of twice the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, second producer of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ).
Since October, more than 480 people have died during the protests, according to an AFP count. The UN Special Representative in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, had recently repeatedly urged politicians to find solutions "Urgently needed" for "Break the deadlock".
