ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - For the first time in 15 years, the Iraqi government will change most of its diplomatic missions worldwide, an official told The New Region on Wednesday.

The decision came in recent meetings among leaders of the Coordination Framework, a ruling Shiite coalition who is the main player in the Iraqi government.

In their last two meetings, the Coordination Framework "discussed in detail and extensively the matter of Iraq's ambassadors in countries around the world, and the possibility of redistributing those positions equally between political forces, whether Shiite or others,” a leader within the ruling coalition told The New Region on condition of anonymity.

The official went on to say that "the Coordination Framework sees an imbalance in ambassador positions, and there is control by certain political parties over Iraqi embassies in different countries. For this reason, it discussed changing these ambassadors and redistributing them according to electoral shares.”

He added that the reshuffle will be done according to a comprehensive agreement between party members within the Coordination Framework.

For the past 15 years, the Iraqi government has not changed a single ambassador, the source detailed.

Iraq has around 90 diplomatic representations, including over 70 embassies, 15 consulates, and two non-title representations in over 70 countries around the world.

“The names of the new ambassadors have not been submitted to parliament yet, but an agreement has been reached between the parties on how to distribute the number as shares between the blocs,” Mohammed Siddiq, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Iraqi parliament, told The New Region.

Fifty percent of the new diplomatic representations would go to employees from Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the remaining half to the political parties based on the size of their parliamentary blocs.

The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already prepared the names of 44 candidates including seven Kurds for the ambassador positions across the world, according to information obtained by The New Region.

For his part, Muthanna Amin, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Iraqi parliament, explained to The New Region that the ambassadors will be selected in two ways.

"The first is by promoting a cadre from within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the second is by nominating names by political parties according to the size of their blocs within parliament.”

“After that, the names of the candidates are submitted in two lists to the Council of Ministers, which will approve them and send them to the parliament,” said Amin.

Amin added that a committee will be formed to "examine the eligibility and competence of the candidates."

Many sources claim different numbers for the Iraqi diaspora population. However, some unofficial data place the number of Iraqis living abroad between one to four million.

In October, Iraq opened two new embassies in Europe: One in Dublin, Ireland, and the other in Zagreb, Croatia.