After more than five months, Iraq finally has a new government. Its parliament has approved U.S.-backed intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi as the country's new prime minister.
Mustafa al-Kadhimi speaks to Parliament in Baghdad on Thursday. Iraq's former spy chief was sworn in early Thursday as prime minister after weeks of tense political negotiations as the country faces a severe economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.Mustafa al-Kadhimi speaks to Parliament in Baghdad on Thursday.
Amid a coronavirus lockdown, government planes headed south to Basra and north to the Kurdish capital, Irbil, to bring members of Parliament to Baghdad for a session that began late Wednesday and continued into early morning. The proceedings were closed to the press. Kadhimi returned from exile in London to Iraq after the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 and worked as a journalist before becoming intelligence chief.
"And due to the oil price fall Iraq is facing a large revenue shortage that makes it difficult to pay salaries and expenses," says Alaaldin."Then you have political instability still there ... and you have the Iran-U.S. conflict."
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