Iraq premier delivers cabinet nominees to parliament speaker

Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has delivered a list of ministerial candidates to parliament speaker Salim Al Juburi.

“We received the names from Mr Prime Minister with their resumes, and MPs can vote to reject or accept the names that will be presented,” said a post on Al Juburi’s official Twitter account on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear how many of the candidates on that list were originally selected by the premier himself compared with those nominated by the political blocs.

Al Abadi has called for a “fundamental” change to the cabinet so that it includes “professional and technocratic figures and academics”, and presented a list of nominees to parliament last week.

But powerful Iraqi parties and politicians rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds, and lawmakers have said the political blocs are nominating other candidates.

This may perpetuate the system of party-affiliated ministers, which would be a blow to the premier’s agenda and reputation.

Meanwhile in the autonomous Kurdish region, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday that Iraqi forces supported by international strikes are working to encircle Daesh stronghold Mosul in preparation for the battle to retake it.

“We are in the process of surrounding Mosul to prepare for the battle, which will be tough,” Le Drian told journalists in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish region.

Le Drian, on the second day of an unannounced trip to Iraq, said warplanes from a US-led coalition, including four from France, had recently struck Daesh command centres in Mosul, located in the country’s north.

On Monday, Le Drian said that Mosul and Syria’s Raqa, another key Daesh-held city, “must fall” in 2016.

Le Drian’s remarks were the most specific timetable for the cities’ recapture given by a member of the US-led coalition against the terrorists, which has been reluctant to comment on the expected pace of operations.

The coalition is carrying out strikes against Daesh and providing training and other assistance to forces fighting the terrorists.

Raqa was seized by Daesh in early 2014, and Mosul was overrun during a terror offensive in June that year.

The fact that both cities still have large civilian populations will complicate efforts to retake them, and the jihadists have had ample time to sow slews of bombs and set up other defences.

Daesh claimed attacks in Paris that killed 130 people in November last year, and there is concern that the jihadists will strike the country again.

Belgium’s federal prosecutor has said a terror cell that attacked Brussels airport and a metro station last month, killing 32 people, initially planned to target France.