Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called Feb. 9 for a major Cabinet reshuffle to include professional figures, technocrats and academics whose names have yet to be revealed. When Abadi was appointed as prime minister-designate on Aug. 11, 2014, he promised to submit a technocrat Cabinet line-up.

Abadi’s repeated call to form a technocrat Cabinet indicates that he had failed to form the said government at the beginning of his term, due to the political structure of the Iraqi government, which was established and evolved within complex sectarian multi-problematic contexts.

The political structure of the Iraqi government was formed after 2003 in accordance with the US vision for a new Iraq, according to which Iraq is not one country and one nation, but rather it is formed of scattered groups of cultures and communities that must be politically represented within a consensus government.

The provisional Iraqi Governing Council was formed according to this vision on July 13, 2003, by virtue of a decision issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority under the leadership of the United States and represented by Paul Bremer. The Governing Council represented the various Iraqi sects, in particular the three main components: Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.