ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Iraqi parliament's voting to complete the cabinet of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi took place on Thursday, seeing all outstanding ministerial portfolios filled bar the post of Minister of Migration and Displaced.

The premier had called for the session to finalize his cabinet after the initial round of voting in May left several ministerial positions vacant amid disputes over the allocation of portfolios.

The ministerial appointments that were successfully appointed on on Thursday are as follows:

Additionally, Laith al-Khazali of the Sadiqoun bloc, the political wing of the pro-Iran Asaib Ahl al-Haq armed group, was appointed as one of the deputy prime ministers, while the Iraqi Turkmen Front's Mehmet Seman became State Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The other two deputy prime ministers that were appointed are Asas Coalition leader Muhsin al-Mandalawi and Mohammed Ali Tamim of the Sunni Qiyada bloc, leaving three of the four posts filled.

Fars Brifkani, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) MP, was expected to be appointed to the final vacant deputy prime minister post during the session, though this did not occur.

"Within five months of the government's formation, the ministerial lineup is complete," Zaidi said in a subsequent statement. "We have filled the vacant positions, and we are now taking rapid steps towards diligent work."

The only ministerial portfolio that was not filled was that of Migration and Displaced, which has been hotly contested by the Christian political factions to whom the ministry is reserved for. 

The ministry has long been controlled by the Babylon Movement, an Iran-backed nominally Christian party and militia that is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The party has long been accused of winning its parliamentary seats by amassing hundreds of thousands of Shiites from southern provinces to vote for their candidates – which run under the legislature’s five quota seats for Christians.

The Christian Soyana bloc, an alliance of Assyrian and Chaldean Christian lawmakers that holds three of the five quota seats after Babylon lost the quota majority in the 2024 parliamentary vote, sought to gain the ministry on account of its majority status, with Soyana MPs telling The New Region that a pressure campaign was mounted on Zaidi to ensure that Babylon maintained de facto control of the portfolio.

Zaidi created several new posts in his government, namely those of Minister for Digital Economy, Governance, Science, and Technology, which includes in its remit Iraq's approach to artificial intelligence (AI), Mehmet Seman's State Minister role, and the creation of a standalone Ministry of Culture distinct from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Opposing the creation of the new portfolios, a group of 17 lawmakers from the Hoquq Movement, Badr Organization, Abshir Ya Iraq, and Ishraqat Kanun blocs announced their boycott of the session in a press conference in the parliament building ahead of the session.

The completion of Zaidi's cabinet has been complicated by competing designs by internal and external actors, with Iraqi officials and politicians telling The New Region in September that the US has threatened to impose sanctions on Iraq should certain pro-Iran individuals receive important portfolios.

Now-Deputy Prime Minister Laith al-Khazali, the younger brother of Qais al-Khazaqli, leader of the pro-Iran Asaib Ahl al-Haq, is currently sanctioned by the US Treasury.