According to NRT the U.S. envoy said Washington will assist the Iraqis in the election of a new president.
The US envoy said in a joint press conference with Bakhtiar that they discussed the formation of a new Iraqi cabinet during a meeting in Sulamani.
US Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman was also part of the US delegation.
“We are very confident that the Iraqi government is moving forward to a strong, sovereign, new government in Baghdad. We are very confident that Iraqi friends and partners will get together and make other decisions to stick to the constitutional timeline to forming a new government,” he said.
Those decisions are for the Iraqis, Iraqi political leadership, and the leadership in the Kurdistan Region, McGurk noted.
The Iraqis will form a new government in the legally mandated period, McGurk added.
The PUK official, for his part, said the US delegation’s visit was to ask the PUK to become part of the solution in the government formation process.
“Barham Salih can nominate himself for the position of Iraqi President whenever the Coalition for Democracy and Justice unify with the PUK,” Bakhtiar added.
Iraqi parliament began accepting nominations for the post of President on Monday and announced that the president would be elected no later than October 2.
The new president will then appoint a prime minister from the largest bloc in the legislature.
A new speaker of parliament was elected on Saturday, September 15, setting the stage for a new president to be chosen.
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