Iraqi Finance Minister submits his resignation

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Minister of Finance, Ali Allawi, submitted his resignation on Tuesday during the cabinet’s regular meeting chaired by Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

No Iraqi media outlet mentioned the reason behind Allawi’s decision to resign from his position.  

Allawi resigned to protest the political conditions, and Minister of Oil, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, will become acting finance minister, officials told the Associated Press (AP).

Allawi’s resignation comes at a time where Iraq witnesses a severe political crisis, exacerbated by the movements of different parties in the Iraqi streets.  

Allawi’s decision came weeks after members of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr’s parliamentary bloc resigned from parliament and his supporters stormed the parliament building in Baghdad, the AP mentioned.

Iraq’s political impasse, now in its 10th month, is the longest in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion reset the political order, according to the AP.

Allawi who is now 75 years old previously held positions in the Iraqi government after the regime change in 2003.

Allawi also worked as a professor at Oxford University and a Visiting Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.