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The nominee for the oil minister in Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's upcoming cabinet, Nizar Saleem Numan said on Friday he is no longer seeking the position as there is no political agreement on the shape of the new government.
"Because there is no political agreement over the form of the future government, I withdraw my candidacy for the ministry of oil position," he told a press conference in Dohuk, giving no further details.
Numan, a 65-year-old petroleum geologist, is part of the lineup of technocrats presented by Abadi on Thursday. Parliament must vote on the reshuffle in the next 10 days.
Numan is the dean of the college of planning at the University of Duhok in the Kurdish region and spent three decades at the University of Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, now under control of Islamic State militants.
REUTERS
