Although months have passed since Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd Al-Mahdi resigned, the Iraqi political process has not yet been able to choose a person accepted by most of the factions as the new Iraqi PM.

One of those nominated by President Barham Salih to the parliament and was supported by some Iraqi political factions was Mohammad Tawfiq Allawi but he was unable to convince the Iraqi political blocs to vote for his cabinet in the parliament.

After Allawi's failure to form a cabinet, Adnan al-Zurfi has been appointed to form a new Iraqi cabinet, but some experts believe it is very unlikely for him to form a government.

Some experts believe that the main issue or major obstacle for him in forming a government in Iraq is the dedication some ministries to sectarian and religious blocs in Iraq. Some of these experts explicitly state that one of these obstacles is the demand of the major Kurdish parties from the Iraqi government.

An Iraq political affairs expert and observer, Joel Wing, has closely followed the development of the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. In an interview with Kurdpress, he stressed that the Kurds' demands and differences among Shiite political factions were the main factors behind Allawi's failure to form a new cabinet in Iraq.

The two parties of PUK and KDP helped thwarting Allawi's efforts to secure the new cabinet, because he refused to meet their demands, which included dedicating ministries to Kurds, Joel Wing commented on Kurds' demands, especially the two ruling parties.

The KDP and PUK helped torpedo the candidacy of Allawi because he refused to have quotas when putting together his cabinet. The Kurds have been one of the biggest advocates for maintaining the political status quo and keeping the quotas so that they get to keep the ministries that they want, the expert further told Kurdpress, adding that “that being said the divisions within the Shiite parties especially the rise of the pro-Iran Hashd groups into politics have played a larger role.”

“Historically when the Shiite parties agree upon a candidate the other parties eventually fall in line when they're given enough concessions. Right now the Shiite parties cannot find any consensus and thus there is no new prime minister.”

Another important issue in Iraq is the issue of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. U.S. and anti -IS coalition forces have just left some bases in Iraq in the last few days and handed them over to the Iraqi army.

But Wing thinks “The U.S. might leave but not anytime soon. The drive to expel the Americans has died down as the political parties have fallen back into their arguments over a new premier.”

“Pro-Iran groups are trying to provoke the U.S. by picking up their rocket attacks upon Iraqi bases that house American forces and the Green Zone in the hopes that the Trump administration will carry out air/missile strikes that kill Iraqis and focus the political class back on the topic of withdrawal, but that hasn't happened yet,” he finally said.

Reporter’s code: 50101