AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Iraq has been in a state of political disunity and crisis, especially inside the Shiite and the Kurdish circles, since the October 2021 election, with the prime minister and president posts being the main sticking points. The situation is so complicated that it can well be called a political impasse.
While there is an agreement crisis among the parties on the future government, the factions present in the Shiite Coordination Framework (SCF) have the least differences and most consensuses on the government formation.
The all-Shiite bloc in its newest decision has decided to form a coalition. On Saturday, Hamed al-Mousawi, a member of Fatah parliamentary alliance led by Hadi al-Amiri, said the SCF plans to form "National Stability" coalition, represented by 88 parliamentarians.
First step of faction making
The move by Shiite political parties to transform their platform of cooperation from a coordination mechanism addressing the election period into a comprehensive coalition with more representation of powerful factions and prominent Shiite figures, firstly, indicates start of a new chapter of Shiite unity not just as a coalition addressing government and parliament but also as a large-scale political structure going beyond political and parliamentary borders, which with large number of parliament seats and voters would practically be the winner of the elections.
So far, the SCF has been an assembly for talks and coordination of such Shiite blocs as Farah, Nasr, State of Law, and National Coalition, and it was believed that it would not last beyond the government formation process and the factions inside it were thought to separate and join various election blocs. However, the new announcement made it clear that the SCF would not fall apart in the cabinet formation process. A proof to this is its rejection of rival Muqtada al-Sadr's demand to expel former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from the coalition in return for a share in the new government.
Secondly, formation of a coalition paves the way for other lawmakers to join a big representation coalition. Turki al-Utaibi, a member of the SCF, said on Saturday that there are independent lawmakers who will soon join SCF and so "our parliamentary representation will increase." Snowballing of the coalition will naturally allow the SCF leaders to form a parliamentary bloc.
Foiling a big plot
The important aspect and perhaps goal of the SCF behind coalition making is foiling a serious plot characterized by suspicious moves and terrorist actions in recent months and weeks, mainly aimed at cracking the Shiite alliance and damaging the image of Iraqi resistance groups in the public eye.
In fact, the choice of the National Stability name for the new coalition is not random and unrelated to the current situation in Iraq and indicates a loud no of all groups present in the coalition to unsettling and terrorist actions.
It is noteworthy that following a rocket attack on house of Mohammed al-Halbousi, ex-parliament speaker, al-Sadr strongly condemned the action and in a Twitter message said: "The voice of the wild animals that know nothing but the language of threat rose again."
He also said addressing those threatened: "Threats are enough, we would not return the country to the corrupts and would not sell the country to beyond the borders."
Such positions led the groups present in the SCF to issue a statement on Saturday condemning the attacks and calling for an investigation and cooperation with the judiciary and security to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
The groups also warned of abuses by some parties to destabilize the country and lead to a civil strife.
As a conclusion, the National Stability coalition marks a new relationship among major Shiite factions in the political scene and provides a powerful strategy to thwart plots by enemies of the Iraqi resistance in the government or parliament in the next four years.
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