Iraq: Allawi appointed new PM, protesters reject him

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Iraq: Allawi appointed new PM, protesters reject him

Last Updated : 03 Feb 2020 10:44:40 AM IST

Iraqi PM Mohammed Allawi

Iraqi protesters have rejected the appointment of Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi as the country's new Prime Minister over his links to the ruling class.

Campaigners in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-government protests across the country that began four months ago, have already outcast Allawi, a spokesperson for the demonstrators told Efe news.

"Despite the conditions presented many times in the squares of the demonstrations the authority of political repression insists on taking the country to the unknown," the protesters said in a statement.

Allawi, who was Minister of Communications in 2006 and 2010, is "a part of the political process that destroyed the country since 2003", when the US invaded Iraq, toppling Saddam Hussein, according to demonstrators.

They called on fellow activists in other cities to "get ready for a next peaceful escalation," of demonstrations.

On Saturday, President Barham Saleh named Allawi as the new Prime Minister two months after Adel Abdel-Mahdi resigned.

Allawi's appointment ended a two-month period in which Abdel-Mahdi was running the country on an interim basis amid increasing unrest and the escalation of tensions between the US and Iran following the January 3 killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.