After five months of political crisis, Iraq adopted a new prime minister on Thursday, both close to the United States and maintaining cordial relations with the Iranian neighbor, the other kingmaker in Baghdad. But the task of Mustafa al-Kazemi, a 53-year-old former intelligence chief, is immense. The country's finances are drained with a barrel of oil falling to less than 20 dollars. The relationship with the United States is faltering, after the expulsion of foreign troops, decided by the Iraqi Parliament in January, in reaction to the assassination in Baghdad on the orders of Donald Trump of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. And irreducible young people are still demonstrating on Tahrir Square in Baghdad against an incompetent political class. One crisis chasing another into Iraq, the new head of government will also have to tackle the reopening of the economy, weighed down by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read also: Iraq has a new government, led by Mustafa al-Kazimi
Al-Kazemi is a pragmatic man, who has spent many years in the United States.
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