Iraq Completes Cabinet, Names US-Sanctioned Militia Leader Deputy PM

BAGHDAD. Iraq's parliament voted on Thursday, October 15, to fill the cabinet posts that had stood empty since Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's government took office in May. Lawmakers approved 11 portfolios in one sitting. They also approved three deputy prime ministers. One of them is Laith al-Khazali, a senior leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iran-backed armed movement that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2020.

Nayef al-Shammari takes the defence ministry. Yasir al-Maliki takes the interior ministry. Both jobs run Iraq's security forces, and both had been vacant for five months. Lawmakers postponed the vote on the nominee for migration and displacement minister after parties failed to agree, so one seat still sits empty.

The scale of the sitting tells its own story. A government that needs one parliamentary session to fill 11 ministries and three deputy posts at once has been running below strength for months, and the two security ministries were the most sensitive gaps of all.

Why the deputy appointment matters

Washington designated Asaib Ahl al-Haq as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2020. It named Qais al-Khazali and his brother Laith al-Khazali as specially designated global terrorists. The United States has accused the group of attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq. Putting Laith al-Khazali in the deputy prime minister's office puts a man under US sanctions near the top of a government that works with Washington on security and oil.

Zaidi's programme promises economic reform, action against corruption, and stronger state institutions. He has also pledged to bring armed groups under state control. That pledge now runs into a hard fact. Some of the men he must disarm sit inside his own government, and powerful groups say they will not hand over their weapons.

What happens next

The completed cabinet can now govern at full strength for the first time since May. Its test list is long. Iraq's economy has taken hits from regional instability. Corruption is deep and open. Armed factions allied with Iran hold weapons outside the army, and the new government says it wants that to end.

There was no formal US response to the appointment in the first hours. Republican Representative Joe Wilson denounced al-Khazali on social media as a designated terrorist. How Washington reacts in the coming days will shape ties with Baghdad, and it could decide how much room Zaidi has to move on the militia question.