BAGHDAD — The Iraqi parliament approved the new government of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Oct. 27, as the 29-page ministerial program put forth by Sudani was put to a vote and received more than 250 of 329 parliamentarians' votes.

Sudani presented his approach as far as the work of ministries is concerned and did not introduce any major change in the general policies drawn by the ministerial program of his predecessor, Mustafa al-Kadhimi. This is despite the fact that over the past couple of months, Sudani harshly criticized Kadhimi and his political team over policies related to foreign relations and regional and international cooperation, among other issues.

Sudani has a strong card enabling him to roll out his program — namely, the broad parliamentary cover that his government enjoys, as it is the fruit of the “state administration coalition” formed by the Coordination Framework, which is a political alliance between Shiite groups and military parties loyal to Iran with about 140 parliamentary seats.

However, it eventually adopted the quota approach among the participating parties, which could end up blocking any major initiatives.