Iraqi President Talabani names Abdul-Mahdi as Vice-President

[News_Editor]

Iraqi President Talabani names Abdul-Mahdi as Vice-President

2011-05-20 23:01:50 GMT+7 (ICT)

BAGHDAD (BNO NEWS) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Thursday issued a Presidential Decree in which Adel Abdul-Mahdi was named as Vice-President, the Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.

Talabani issued a presidential statement on Friday announcing the designation of Abdul-Mahdi who will be the country's 1st Vice-President following the U.S. military intervention that ended the Saddam Hussein regime.

On May 12, the Iraqi Parliament named Abdul-Mahdi, Tareq al-Hashimy and Khudhier al-Khuza'e as Deputy Presidents. The majority decision was considered by many observers as a constitutional violation.

The Iraqi national partnership government was formed in December 2010, ending a nine-month political stalemate that followed the March elections. The new government is led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Last April, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Iraqi leaders to complete the formation of their government to address crucial issues in the Middle Eastern country.

In addition to the social and economic challenges, Iraq is in need of boosting their security forces as the United States promised to withdraw all its forces from Iraqi soil by the end of the year.

The U.S. currently has an estimated 50,000 service members in Iraq. Despite the agreement, some sectors in Iraq have called for keeping American presence in the country as the security situation is still uncontrolled.

PM al-Maliki announced that he will discuss with all political leaders a possible agreement to keep a number of American forces in the troubled country. The withdrawal of U.S. forces began in August 2010 as decided in the Iraqi-U.S. security agreement signed in 2008.

According to the 2008 agreement, all U.S. forces will be withdrawn by the end of 2011; eight years after the U.S.-led war began on March 20, 2003. Hassan al-Sunaid, chairman of the Parliament's Security and Defense Commission called for the U.S. to respect the withdrawal deadline as an extended stay will be against Iraq's takeover process.

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