Iraqi members of parliament (MP) were met yesterday for the first time since the end of the five-day Eid al-Adha but hopes a new government would be formed quickly were dampened on news Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would not be named prime minister-designate for several days.
The latest session of parliament, still only the fourth since polls in March, comes days after a power-sharing pact between Iraq’s divided political factions put an end to months of impasse in which the country shattered the record for the longest period without a new administration following elections.
Newly re-elected Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was not expected to officially ask al-Maliki to form a Cabinet until Thursday, a parliamentary official said, so as to give al-Maliki more time to negotiate ministerial posts.
Under Iraq’s Constitution, Talabani has 15 days to appoint a prime minister following his selection by MPs on Nov. 11. He had earlier been expected to name al-Maliki as prime minister yesterday.
“Jalal Talabani decided to nominate [al-]Maliki as prime minister on Thursday, one day before the official limit,” the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That is to give him the maximum amount of time to form the government, which is a very difficult task.”
Yesterday’s scheduled session of parliament was to focus on the establishment of its committees and regulations, the official added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
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