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2020-04-04 Iraq
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Iraq’s feuding politicians impervious to emerging calamity
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| Typical. This is why they don’t have nice things. |
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Two weeks ago, Iraqi President Barham Salih nominated Adnan al-Zurfi as prime minister-designate and tasked him with forming a Cabinet to be approved by parliament. This was the president’s latest effort to form a government after Adel Abdul Mahdi stepped down in November last year in the face of widespread public criticisms of his government’s failure to provide services to the people.
Al-Zurfi faces a daunting challenge. A former governor of Najaf province, he has dual US-Iraqi citizenship and has been associated with Iraq’s politics since the US invasion in 2003. He took a tough stand against the militia of Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
 ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival al-Khoei assassinated shortly after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
in 2004. He is the head of the Nasr parliamentary grouping that includes former Prime Minister Haider Abadi.
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While al-Zurfi enjoys the backing of several Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups in parliament, he is being opposed by the Fatah Alliance that is closely linked to Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and by several militias that together make up the Iran-affiliated Popular Mobilization Units. He is viewed by them as being pro-US and thus a threat to continued Iranian influence in Iraq. Kata’ib Hezbollah has been particularly vociferous in criticizing al-Zurfi’s nomination, with its front man even saying that it is a "declaration of war against the Iraqi people that will burn what remains of Iraq."
Though he backs the street protests, al-Zurfi is also being opposed by the young demonstrators who have been agitating for wide-ranging reform since October last year. They have been demanding an end to Iraq’s "spoils" system in parliament, which is based on sectarian and ethnic affiliations, and have been insisting on a prime minister who has no links to Iraq’s earlier politics or with foreign entities ‐ al-Zurfi fails to fulfill both of these criteria.
Iraq’s political system is experiencing paralysis at a time when the country is facing several challenges ‐ both economic and military ‐ which have been complicated by the onset of the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
pandemic. The virus outbreak has dealt a body blow to the national economy by slowing down domestic economic activity and retarding Iraq’s trade ties with its principal partners, Iran, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
and China, which are fighting their own battles against the virus.
What has worsened the situation is the collapse in oil prices. Oil exports provide more than 90 percent of the revenue for Iraq’s annual budget. The budget for 2020, not yet approved by parliament, provides for an outlay of $135 billion, with most of the expenditure going toward paying the salaries of 7 million government officials. The budget was based on assumed oil prices of $56 per barrel. Now that oil prices have fallen to less than half this figure, the government will struggle to meet its obligations to public servants, while also paying for its local and foreign debt, providing urgently needed public services and investing in national development projects. 
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Posted by Fred 2020-04-04 00:00||
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Front Page|| [11136 views ]
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File under: Govt of Iraq
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Posted by Bobby 2020-04-04 12:51||
2020-04-04 12:51||
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14:34 Frank G
14:28 Melancholic
14:27 NoMoreBS
14:14 swksvolFF
14:12 swksvolFF
13:54 mossomo
13:51 mossomo
13:50 NoMoreBS
13:50 Abu Uluque
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13:41 NoMoreBS
13:39 Abu Uluque
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13:36 swksvolFF
13:32 mossomo
13:26 Frank G
13:12 Regular joe
13:12 mossomo
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13:00 swksvolFF
12:59 Regular joe
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12:53 Skidmark
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