Baghdad, 20 July 2008 (Voices of Iraq)

The Iraqi Parliament on Saturday approved the appointment of a deputy premier and nine ministers to fill vacant posts in the new ministerial line-up, a parliamentary source said.

“Today the Parliament approved the list of candidates for vacant portfolios in the Iraqi government, which included a deputy prime minister, Rafe’ al-Isawi, in addition to nine ministers, including five from the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) and four from the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC),” MP Taha Dara al-Saadi from the Shiite coalition told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI).

The IAF list included Abd Thiyab al-Ajeeli as the minister of higher education and scientific research, Mahir Dali Ibrahim al-Hadithi as the minister of culture, Farouq Abdelqadir Abdelrahman as the minister of communications, Mohammed Munajid Aifan al-Dulaimi as the minister of state for foreign affairs, and Nawal Majeed Hameed as the minister of state for women’s affairs, al-Saadi noted.

Meanwhile, the UIC ministers are Aamer Abdeljabbar Ismail as the minister of transport, Ahtan Abbas No’man as the minister of state for tourism and antiquities affairs, Kholoud Sami Azaza as the minister of state for provincial affairs, and Thamir Jaafar al-Zubeidi as the minister of state for civil society affairs, he added.

According to the Iraqi Parliament’s rapporteur, Abdelahad Afram, a total of 165 parliamentarians gave the vote of confidence to the new ministers.

Earlier today, a parliamentary source told VOI that the Iraqi Parliament held its regular session to vote on candidates for vacant ministerial posts and to ratify its budget.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the Iraqi government, Ali al-Dabbagh, told VOI that the government had submitted to the Parliament names of 10 candidates for vacant portfolios in the new ministerial line-up.
In early August 2007, the IAF, 40 seats, withdrew its five ministers and a deputy premier, Sallam al-Zawbaie, from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government in protest of what it described as the non-participation in the political and security decision-making process.

The Sadrist bloc (30 seats), or Iraqis loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, withdrew its six ministers from the cabinet in April 2007; while the Iraqi National List (INL) withdrew its five ministers in August of the same year. Iraq Updates

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