Source: Iraq PM resignation reports are false

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi threatened to resign are “completely untrue” and intended to weaken his position, a senior government source told Shafaq News on Friday.

Al-Zaidi is facing several obstacles –some genuine and some manufactured by “brokers and thieves”– including challenges related to financial and administrative corruption.

Several reports had cited unnamed political sources alleging that the prime minister threatened to step down because his demands were not being addressed. Among them, Al Araby TV quoted a source from the Shiite Coordination Framework, parliament’s largest bloc that nominated Al-Zaidi, linking the alleged dispute to armed factions’ refusal to surrender their weapons.

Under Al-Zaidi’s ongoing Dawn Crackdown anti-corruption campaign, Iraqi authorities detained 31 officials, employees, contractors, and other suspects across seven cases between July 20 and 26 alone. His government has also set September 30 as the deadline for bringing weapons outside state institutions under government control.

Read more: Iraq's September deadline undercuts armed factions' case for weapons