{"id":108243,"date":"2026-05-11T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/108243\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:38:09","slug":"iraq-cabinet-talks-spotlight-finance-ministry-candidates-and-banking-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/108243\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq cabinet talks spotlight finance ministry candidates and banking allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                            2026-05-11T11:02:16+00:00<\/p>\n<p>                                    font<\/p>\n<p>                                            Enable Reading Mode<\/p>\n<p>\n                                        A-<br \/>\n                                        A<br \/>\n                                        A+\n                                    <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shafaq News- Baghdad<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Several figures are competing for Iraq\u2019s finance minister<br \/>\npost in the anticipated government formation, political sources told Shafaq<br \/>\nNews on Monday, adding that current Finance Minister Taif Sami could remain in<br \/>\noffice as negotiations continue among the Shiite Coordination Framework (CF)<br \/>\nover cabinet portfolios.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Prime Minister-designate, Ali Al-Zaidi, asked CF parties<br \/>\nto grant him direct authority over the finance and interior ministries,<br \/>\nallowing him to personally select what he described as qualified candidates to<br \/>\nlead the two portfolios, the sources revealed. The request came after Al-Hikma<br \/>\n(Wisdom) Movement secured the finance ministry under ongoing political<br \/>\nagreements.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the sources, Mohammed Sahib Al-Darraji is<br \/>\ncurrently viewed as the leading candidate for the finance ministry, while<br \/>\nRafidain Bank Director General Ali Karim Hussein has also been proposed for the<br \/>\nposition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The nomination of Hussein comes amid previous controversy<br \/>\nsurrounding <a href=\"https:\/\/shafaq.com\/en\/Economy\/Baghdad-expands-probe-into-Rafidain-Bank-s-airport-dollar-sales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">allegations<\/a> linked to Rafidain Bank, Iraq\u2019s largest state-owned<br \/>\nbank. Finance Minister Taif Sami had earlier ordered the suspension of the<br \/>\nbank\u2019s director and more than 20 officials and employees over suspicions<br \/>\nrelated to alleged manipulation in US dollar sales at Baghdad International<br \/>\nAirport, as well as other administrative and financial violations. Later, she<br \/>\nreversed the suspension order and reinstated the employees under investigation,<br \/>\naccording to an official document. Information circulating at the time suggested<br \/>\nthat political pressure contributed to settling the case and closing the<br \/>\ninvestigation without recommendations for penalties against those accused.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One source told Shafaq News that additional allegations<br \/>\nlinked to Rafidain Bank have circulated, including suspicions of money<br \/>\nlaundering, waste, and mismanagement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In August 2025, US Congressman Joe Wilson accused Rafidain<br \/>\nBank, under Hussein\u2019s management, of conducting financial transactions with<br \/>\nYemen\u2019s Houthi movement and warned that the issue could lead to the suspension<br \/>\nof US financial support for Iraq.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bank\u2019s branch in Abu Dhabi was also found to have<br \/>\ncommitted financial and administrative violations, according to the sources,<br \/>\nwhile indicators of mismanagement prompted the Central Bank of the United Arab<br \/>\nEmirates to impose what were described as large financial penalties on the<br \/>\nbranch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-05-11T11:02:16+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Baghdad Several figures are competing for Iraq\u2019s finance&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[30690,152,8090,4485,94,37310],"class_list":{"0":"post-108243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iraq","8":"tag-ali-al-zaidi","9":"tag-breaking","10":"tag-coordination-framework","11":"tag-finance-ministry","12":"tag-iraq","13":"tag-iraq-cabinet-talks-spotlight-finance-ministry-candidates-and-banking-allegations"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116555750207210862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}