Al-Sudani has not given up on the Sadrist movement: CF leading figure says
Shafaq News/ Iraq's Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani has not given up on the Sadrist movement, a leading figure in the Shiite Coordination Framework(CF) said on Tuesday.
A leading figure in al-Sudani's al-Furatain movement, Ehab Ayyad, told Shafaq News Agency, "the Sadrist movement is an influential movement with a massive popular base and a huge impact on the political process in Iraq. You cannot ostracize the Sadrist movement if your goal is seeking stability."
"Al-Sudani has been working out a meeting with the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, very soon," said Ayyad, "he does not want to ostracize any party."
Earlier, the Iraqi firebrand cleric announced his refusal to join the new cabinet being formed by al-Sudani. The 52-year-old Shiite former minister al-Sudani has the backing of al-Sadr's Iran-backed rivals, the Coordination Framework, which controls 138 out of 329 seats in the Iraqi legislature.
"We stress our firm and clear refusal for any of our affiliates to participate... in this government formation," Mohammed Saleh al-Iraqi, a close associate of al-Sadr, said in a statement on Twitter.
Meanwhile, a leading figure in the Sadrist movement, Issam Hussein, said that al-Sudani is unable to satisfy all the parties he is seeking to bring together in his "quota cabinet", "so he is inventing portfolios that do not exist."
"Cooking up new ministries will be detrimental for the state's treasury," the Sadrist figure added, "unnecessary expenses will drain the treasury on a monthly basis; only to satisfy the parties of the quota led by al-Sudani."
