Latif Rashid on Thursday became the President of Iraq following a vote in Parliament, which marked the beginning of the formation of the Iraqi government – a year after the parliamentary elections in the country, Rudaw reports.
Rashid beat his opponent, former Iraqi President Barham Saleh, by 63 votes. In total, 162 deputies voted for Rashid.
Mohammed al-Sudani, who is running for the new prime minister, is expected to form a government within 30 days.
Previously, Rashid served as the Minister of Water Resources of Iraq, and was also a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.
Protests against corruption in Iraq caused early parliamentary elections in the country in October 2021. However, elected parliamentarians could not form a government due to disagreements between political blocs over the mechanisms for its formation.
Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk will speak at the European Parliament and possibly meet with French President Emanuel Macron.
“First of all, in France, I will work on the parliamentary line…. A possible meeting with President Macron is being worked out, if the schedule allows,” Stefanchuk said on the air of the national telethon on Sunday.
According to Stefanchuk, in addition to Paris, he will visit Strasbourg and speak at the European Parliament.
“We will also work in Strasbourg, in the European Parliament. I will have a meeting with the leadership of the European Parliament and a speech in the European Parliament, and meetings with the main political groups of the European Parliament in order to enlist their support at this final stage,” Stefanchuk said.
He also did not rule out meetings with heads of other institutions of the European Union.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, FRANCE, PRESIDENT, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT
The EU is working on the creation of solidarity lines for the export of grain from Ukraine, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said.
She has said that 20 million tonnes of wheat are stuck in Ukraine and must be taken out. Therefore, they have created and are working hard on solidarity lines that will make it possible to take out batches of this wheat through land routes and trains to their ports. This is not trivial and, of course, more tiring and more expensive, but it is necessary to take this grain out, von der Leyen said at a press conference following the Special Meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Tuesday.
Ukraine needs to unite the position of the Europeans today, because this will achieve greater success and victory in the battle with Russia, believes boxer, brother of the mayor of Kyiv Vladimir Klitschko.
“The leader of Germany’s largest opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, was in Kyiv today. He met with the top leadership of Ukraine, met with the mayor of the capital. He expressed support and assured of further assistance to our state. And we are grateful for this. I am convinced that Ukraine today critically needs reliable and powerful partners, with whom it is necessary to talk, develop cooperation, be grateful for something, convince of something,” Klitschko wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
He noted that Germany was concerned that Ukraine refused to accept German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“The non-diplomatic statements of the Ukrainian ambassador to the German chancellor are also adding fuel to the fire. Now is not the time for emotions and excessive eloquence! I am sure that President Zelensky must nevertheless take a politically balanced step and invite the President of Germany, Ukraine’s strategic partner state, to Kyiv. We we need to unite the position of the Europeans today – this is how we will achieve greater success for our country and victory in the battle with the Russian aggressor,” Klitschko summed up.
In April, the German publication Bild, citing its own sources, reported that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier planned to come to Kyiv along with government delegations from other EU countries, but Zelensky allegedly did not want to meet him because of the close ties of the German leader with Russia.
Later, Steinmeier himself said that Kyiv considered his possible visit to Ukraine undesirable, adding that Polish President Andrzej Duda had proposed a joint trip to Ukraine in recent days in order to “give a strong signal of European solidarity with Ukraine.”
Against this background, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to the German edition Der Tagesspiegel, criticized Ukraine’s refusal to receive the German president on a visit, calling it “somewhat confusing” and urged not to underestimate the fact that Germany supplies Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and many other goods military purpose.
On April 13, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Office of the President of Ukraine had not received a request from the Office of the President of Germany regarding the visit of German leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Ukraine.
At the same time, he stressed that in the conditions of war and the daily death of people in Ukraine, she has the right to afford “to receive and be in the circle of those leaders of countries who really support her.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting in Kyiv with President of Poland Andrzej Duda, President of Latvia Egils Levits, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda and President of Estonia Alar Karis, who are visiting Ukraine.
“The heads of state held a meeting in the format of a working lunch,” the press service of the President of Ukraine reports.
After the talks are over, the presidents will talk to media representatives.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena thanked the King and Queen of the Netherlands for supporting the people of Ukraine in the fight against the Russian invasion.
“My wife Olena and I are sincerely grateful to Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima for the kind words of support for the people of Ukraine. We resist aggressive aggression. Today, more than ever, it is important for us to feel that we are not alone,” Zelensky wrote on his Twitter on Tuesday.
