BAGHDAD, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- UN special envoy for Iraq, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and speaker of the Arab Parliament on Friday congratulated Iraq on its ongoing political process to form a new government.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, congratulated the country's new Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on being assigned to form a new government, official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported Friday.
"We hope and expect the formation of the new government will pave the way for addressing Iraq's long list of urgent and pending issues and meet the needs of the Iraqi people," INA quoted the UN envoy's congratulatory message to al-Sudani as saying.
Meanwhile, GCC secretary-general Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf congratulated newly-elected Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and prime minister-designate al-Sudani, said the GCC press release.
Al-Hajraf praised the strong relations between the GCC and Iraq, highlighting GCC countries' willingness to strengthen cooperation with Iraq.
In his congratulation to Rashid and al-Sudani, Arab Parliament Speaker Adel Abdul-Rahman al-Asoumi called on all Iraqi political forces, at the delicate moments, to cooperate and provide support to the Iraqi president and prime minister-designate to maintain the stability of the country and achieve national consensus, according to the Arab Parliament press release.
Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday elected Rashid as the new president, marking a crucial step toward forming a new government for the country and ending a year of political deadlock.
After the parliament session, Rashid tasked al-Sudani with forming a new government as al-Sudani was nominated by the Coordination Framework (CF), the largest parliamentary alliance and an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties.
Rashid's election as president came as political tensions have been rising in the past months between the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the parliamentary elections in 2021, and its rivals in the CF alliance.
Al-Sadr demanded to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, but it was rejected by the CF parties, which became the largest bloc after al-Sadr ordered his followers to withdraw from the parliament in June. ■
