The following is a statement from US President, Barack Obama, on the formation of the new Iraqi government:

Today’s vote in the Council of Representatives is a significant moment in Iraq’s history and a major step forward in advancing national unity. I congratulate Iraq’s political leaders, the members of the Council of Representatives, and the Iraqi people on the formation of a new government of national partnership.

Yet again, the Iraqi people and their elected representatives have demonstrated their commitment to working through a democratic process to resolve their differences and shape Iraq’s future. Their decision to form an inclusive partnership government is a clear rejection of the efforts by extremists to spur sectarian division.

Iraq faces important challenges, but the Iraqi people can also seize a future of opportunity. The United States will continue to strengthen our long-term partnership with Iraq’s people and leaders as they build a prosperous and peaceful nation that is fully integrated into the region and international community.

Following on from our listing on Monday of the main cabinet positions, we present a more complete line-up below, compiled from information sourced from Iraq Oil Report and Reuters.

The official website of the Iraq cabinet has not published the official list, and has chosen instead to lead with an article about the importation of eggs. Let us hope that the new government makes it a priority to improve its communications.

Some of the positions have not been filled, awaiting the political blocks (in parenthesis Coalition/Party) to nominate their candidates:

Prime Minister: Nouri al-Maliki (State of Law (SOL)/Daawa) will also be acting ministers of Interior, Defense, and Minister of State for National Security until candidates can be approved.

Deputy Prime Ministers: Saleh al-Mutlaq (Iraqiya/Hewar); Hussain al-Shahristani (SOL/Independent) — with oversight of energy policy — and acting minister of electricity [but Reuters names Ziad Tarek as Minister for Electricity]; Roz Nouri Shawes (Kurdistan Alliance (KA)/Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)), and acting minister of trade.

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Hoshyar Zebari (KA/KDP) will also be acting minister of womens’ affairs.

Minister of Finance: Rafia al-Issawi (Iraqiya/Mustaqbal)

Minister of Oil: Abdul Karim al-Luaibi (independent but associated with Daawa)

Minister of Higher Education: Ali al-Adeeb [Ali Al Adib] (SOL/Daawa) will also be acting minister of state for national dialogue (reconciliation). [Reuters names Amer Al Khizaii as State Minister for National Reconciliation Affairs]

Minister of Housing and Construction: Mohammed Sahib al-Daraji [Reuters names Mohammed Salem Al Laban] (Iraqi National Alliance (INA)/Sadrist)

Minister of Education: Mohammed Tamim (Iraqiya/Hewar)

Minister of Industry and Minerals: Ahmed Nassar Dali al-Karbouli [Ahmad Nader Dali] (Iraqiya/Tajdid)

Minister of Justice: Hassan Shimari [Hassan Al Shumari] (INA/Fadhila)

The following profiles of the top ministers ihttp://www.iraq-businessnews.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=14895&action=edit&message=10n the new Iraqi cabinet are based on information from Reuters and Associated Press:

-Prime Minister: Nouri al-Maliki, Shiite, the current premier.

Al-Maliki, 60, was first installed as prime minister as a compromise candidate in 2006 but barely hung onto the job this year when his political coalition fell short of winning the most seats in national elections. Born in 1950 in Hindiya, he holds a master’s degree in Arabic and worked at the education ministry before fleeing Saddam Hussein’s regime.

-President: Jalal Talabani, Kurd, also currently in office.

With his trademark grin and walrus mustache, Talabani, 77, has positioned himself as a father figure for Iraq. Despite holding a largely ceremonial post, he has flexed political muscle on some issues. He is viewed with suspicion by some Iraqis who believe the president should be an Arab.

Talabani was born near Arbil in northern Iraq in 1933 and became a lieutenant to Mullah Mustafa Barzani, patriarch of Iraqi Kurdish nationalism and founder of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He split from the KDP in 1974 and formed his own party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in Damascus the following year. Talabani became Iraq’s first elected president in more than 50 years in April 2005 and was selected again in April 2006 as a national unity government was put together.

-Parliament Speaker: Osama al-Nujaifi [Usama al-Najafi], Sunni.

Al-Nujaifi and his brother, Ninevah Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi, are two of the most powerful Sunni Arabs in Iraq’s north and have taken hardline positions against Kurdish power in Mosul. The 54-year-old speaker was born in Mosul and has a degree in electric engineering.

-Deputy prime minister: Saleh al-Mutlaq, Sunni.

The contentious anti-Iran Sunni lawmaker was banned from running in 2010 elections because of alleged ties with Saddam Hussein’s disbanded Baath party, but allowed this week to resume his political life under a government power-sharing agreement. He was born in Fallujah in 1947.

-Deputy Prime Minister for Energy: Hussain al-Shahristani, Shiite.

The current oil minister will oversee Iraq’s lucrative energy industry in his new post. Al-Shahristani was imprisoned for years during Saddam Hussein’s regime. He opposed oil deals signed by Kurdistan government. Born in 1942 in Karbala, and a nuclear scientist by training, he studied in Britain, Russia and Canada.

-Foreign Minister: Hoshyar Zebari, Kurd, currently in the same post.

Articulate and accessible to reporters, Zebari, 64, has worked with American officials for years, going back to when he was the foreign spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He speaks fluent English. He was born in the northern Kurdish town of Aqra, near Mosul.

-National Council for Strategic Policies Chairman: Ayad Allawi, Shiite.

The Shiite former prime minister’s alliance won the most seats in the March election with strong Sunni support. Born in Baghdad in 1946, Allawi abandoned the Baath party in 1975 and escaped an assassination attempt by Saddam agents in 1978 while he was in London.

-Finance minister: Rafia al-Issawi [Rafie al-Essawi], Sunni.

He is currently serving as a deputy prime minister. He was a fierce critic of U.S. troop activity during the first major battle of Fallujah in 2004 when he was serving as director of the city’s hospital, claiming more than 600 people – half of them women and children – were killed in the fighting.

- Oil Minister: Abdul Kareem Luaibi

Born in the Iraqi capital in 1959, Luaibi graduated from the University of Baghdad with a bachelor’s degree in oil engineering. He was hired by the government as an oil engineer with the South Oil Company in 1982.

Luaibi worked with the Midland Refinery Company, another Oil Ministry affiliate, from 1993 to 1999 and moved to the technical department of the ministry in 2006. He moved up the ranks quickly, to inspector general, from 2007-09, and then as deputy minister in March 2009.

Luaibi is known to have good relations with international oil companies. He led most of the talks in the first and second bid rounds for Iraq’s oilfields and signed many of the contracts with global majors.

(Sources: Reuters, Associated Press)

The Speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Osama Nujaifi, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, announced on Monday that the parliament will vote tomorrow [Tuesday] on the formation of a new cabinet, according to AKnews.

“The committee that was set up by the parliament today to study the cabinet file and the government program will submit its report to the parliament tomorrow morning to vote on the government at 12 pm”, Nujaifi said.

“The Prime Minister has met his obligations and provided the names of the constitutional government before the constitutional deadline.”

Bloomberg reports that nearly one-third of the 42 ministerial nominees were only acting ministers, an attempt to buy time to work out disagreements over some of the posts with the hardline Shiite faction loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

“I am very happy today,” al-Maliki told reporters. “What has happened today is new evidence that we, as Iraqis, cannot continue our differences forever.”

Important posts such as the defense, interior and national security ministries will be filled within a month, to give lawmakers more time to ensure they are run by “politically independent figures”, officials said.

Please click here to see who’s who in the new government.

(Sources: AKnews, Bloomberg, Associated Press)

Reuters, quoting ‘senior officials’, reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will unveil his new cabinet on Monday, retaining the oil minister who forged ambitious plans to turn the war-ravaged country into a top global oil producer.

Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shi’ite and former nuclear scientist, will be a key member of the new cabinet.

Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, will also stay in his post but a final decision on a new finance minister has not been made, said sources close to Maliki, a Shi’ite.

Parliament cleared one of the final hurdles to the government formation on Saturday by lifting a ban on three senior Sunni politicians who had been excluded for suspected links to the party of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

“Today’s decision will help create a suitable atmosphere to form the government,” said Sami al-Askari, a prominent member of Maliki’s political bloc.

Shahristani’s return is a sign to oil companies that Iraq will honour contracts to develop its vast oil reserves.

Under Shahristani’s direction, the oil ministry has set out ambitious targets to increase Iraq’s production capacity to 12 million barrels per day (bpd) over the next six or seven years, from 2.5 million today,

“The minister of oil will stay in his place as the minister of oil,” said Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, an official with Maliki’s coalition. Other senior sources confirmed he would stay minister rather than accept a post as deputy prime minister in charge of energy affairs which might be less influential.

Maliki intends to name a cabinet that is expected to include 42 posts, including three deputy prime ministers. The jobs are being divvied up among Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions according to the seats they won in the March election.

Two of the most prominent Kurds in the government’s inner circle will be familiar faces: Zebari and Deputy Prime Minister Ross Nouri Shawis.

Still unsettled is the role of Iyad Allawi, the secularist Shi’ite former prime minister whose cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in parliament, more than any other grouping.

Under a power-sharing deal reached on Nov. 10, he was expected to take the leadership of a national strategic policies council. But he has since wavered, and said on Friday he would only take part if he was given real power. Maliki has said the strategic policies council would be an advisory body.

Senior officials said Maliki’s announcement on Monday would not include sensitive security posts, including the interior, defence and national security ministers. Nominees have not yet been decided due to a dearth of qualified, independent candidates, officials said.

(Source: Reuters)

Ayad Allawi has reportedly threatened to quit the power-sharing government according to an interview with Britain’s Times newspaper on Tuesday.

“Power-sharing is not happening,” Allawi said. “It is not set to work in a meaningful way… If it does not change, I will not participate.”

Despite his Iraqiya block narrowly winning elections in March, Allawi has seen religious parties coalesce to form the biggest grouping in the new parliament led by Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki.

Allawi, a Shia Muslim, claimed that Iraq’s political system meant a non-sectarian politician could never succeed.

He laid the blame at the feet of Iraq’s Shia neighbour, Iran: “There is a question mark on democracy now … People realise that Iran has the upper hand and they feel Iraq is controlled by foreign forces.”

He added: “Iran has obstructed the way to power-sharing. They have a red line against me personally and they do not want Iraqiya to participate in the new government.”

Allawi said Iraqis were likely to quickly become disillusioned with any government that is formed.

“There is a lot of disillusionment among Iraqis, whether they voted for us or not,” Allawi said. “They associated democracy with the fact that whoever got the highest numbers should spearhead the formation of the government.”

(Sources: The Times, AFP)

We have just received news that Iraq’s newly-appointed President, Jalal Talabani, has formally asked Nouri al-Maliki to accept the position of Prime Minister and form the next government.

Following his appointment today (Thursday), al-Maliki will have 30 days in which to choose a cabinet.

Maliki has reportedly asked Iraqi’s to “turn over a new page, and forget their differences”.

BBC’s correspondent in Baghdad describes it this morning as “one more step along the tortuous road to a new government”.

Iraq’s newly-appointed President, Jalal Talabani (pictured), is apparently using his full allowance of 15 days to formally appoint a new Prime Minister, thus allowing the haggling over the details to continue. And while Nouri al-Maliki remains the ‘agreed’ candidate, we should never under-estimate the Iraqi parliament’s ability to throw us a last-minute surprise.

If al-Maliki is appointed on Thursday as expected, he is then allowed 30 days in which to appoint a cabinet – based on progress thus far, we should not expect to see new name-plates on the doors much before Christmas.

Our information is that incumbent Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, will be re-appointed to that key position, but that other ministries are being hotly contested.

Also up for debate are the precise roles and powers of the National Council for Strategic Policy, to be headed by Ayad Allawi.

Foreign investors, meanwhile, can take some comfort from the creation of a new court to resolve disputes between foreign investors and Iraqi companies. If this is seen to operate in a fair and impartial manner, it should help to encourage foreign direct investment into the country.

But there is clearly more work for the new parliament to do in that area, especially with regard to the proposed new securities law, as our expert blogger Mark DeWeaver argues in his latest column.

If you’re considering taking advantage of these new developments in Iraq, Upper Quartile and AAIB are here to help you. For more information please contact Gavin Jones or Adrian Shaw.