Washington: will not take sides in the upcoming Iraqi government elections

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The United States has said it does not support specific candidate who will become head of the coming Iraqi governments.

“We will work with whatever candidate the Iraqis choose, and we wish them the best of luck in their elections,” Heather Nauert, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said during the daily press briefing from Washington. “I have confidence in the Iraqi people. I think the Iraqi people will have confidence in themselves, too.”

In March, American ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman said his country is not planning to take part in securing the Iraqi parliamentary elections.

The Iraqi parliamentary elections is scheduled to take place on May 12. The elections were originally scheduled for September 2017, but were delayed due to the country’s fight against Islamic State.

In January, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s office said securing the upcoming elections that will take place at all Iraqi cities is a responsibility of both the military and local police.
This came in response to new reports that tackled a proposal by Washington over securing the upcoming local and legislative elections at each of Anbar, Salahuddin and Nineveh fearing fraud there.

News reports had unveiled proposal put forward by the U.S. army to let American soldiers secure parliamentary and provincial elections.