Iraq’s National Political Council: A True Sunni Platform or Just a Power-Sharing Alliance?

In what has been described as an effort to restore Sunni influence after years of fragmentation, all Sunni parties that won seats in the election announced the formation of the National Political Council, positioning it as a unified umbrella similar to the Shiite Coordination Framework.

The new council brings together five parties holding roughly 75 parliamentary seats, excluding about ten Sunni lawmakers still aligned with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition, as well as the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Masoud Barzani.

Under One Umbrella

On November 23, Sunni parties that won seats in the election issued a statement announcing a broad meeting in Baghdad, convened at the initiative of Khamis al-Khanjar. The gathering included leaders of the Takadum, Azm, al-Seyada, Hasm, and Aljamahir coalitions. The statement emphasized the parties’ sense of national responsibility and the urgent challenges facing Iraq at this pivotal moment.

According to the statement, the leaders reviewed political developments and the specific challenges confronting their provinces, stressing the need for a unified approach to preserve political and social stability, protect constitutional rights, and strengthen representation in state institutions.

The meeting resulted in the formation of the National Political Council, a coordinating body designed to unify positions and decisions on major national issues while fostering cooperation among Sunni leaders and political blocs. The council will hold regular meetings throughout the sixth parliamentary term.

Leaders said the council will remain open to all national partners and committed to principles that safeguard Iraq’s unity and the rights of all its communities. They called on Sunni citizens to support the initiative as a step toward unified political action and a new phase of stability and development.

Khamis al-Khanjar, head of the al-Seyada coalition, said the council aims to coordinate Sunni positions with the Kurdistan region and organize political priorities, including speeding up leadership selections and shaping participation in the next government. He added that dialogue would continue to resolve remaining issues and that the council had already made significant progress.

Mohammed al-Halbousi, leader of the Takadum party, welcomed the council, noting the need to unify efforts and ensure that every party’s rights are respected. Muthanna al-Samarrai of the Azm Alliance said the responsibilities are significant and the challenges immense, underscoring the importance of Sunni unity and participation in the upcoming government. He hoped the council would remain active throughout the parliamentary term.

Following the unification of Sunni forces, the Iraqi Fiqh Council, the country’s largest religious authority for Sunnis, announced its support for the formation of the National Political Council, calling the move “a positive step to strengthen unity and coordinate efforts in the national interest,” according to a statement released on November 24.

The council praised what it described as “any national effort” aimed at consolidating consensus and forming a competent, professional government, while urging all political actors to prioritize the public interest and fulfill their responsibilities to serve Iraq and its citizens.

In contrast to the unification of Shiite forces under the Coordination Framework, Iraqi political analyst Abd al-Qadir al-Nail argued that bringing Sunni parties together under a single umbrella was essential to counter attempts by some actors within the Framework to divide the Sunni bloc and weaken its influence in the political process.

Iraqi news platform Alssaa quoted al-Nail on November 24, saying that the formation of a unified political council for Sunni blocs that won seats in the sixth parliamentary election “aims to confront challenges targeting their presence and prevent the Coordination Framework from isolating each bloc individually, which would undermine their leverage in political negotiations.”

Al-Nail added that the Sunni community has key demands that must be included in the next government’s agenda. These include sensitive issues such as the status of the forcibly disappeared and the return of the displaced Sunnis from Jurf al-Sakhar and fifty other Sunni-majority towns. He also highlighted the restoration of rights denied by the al-Sudani government and Interior Ministry, which had blocked Iraqis abroad from obtaining passports and official documents under dubious pretexts, especially in neighboring countries.

The political analyst stressed the need for real balance within military and civilian state institutions, noting that no security agency is currently headed by an Arab Sunni or Kurdish official.

Al-Nail highlighted the need to resolve other important issues related to the distribution of senior positions, including the speakership of parliament and the six ministries allocated to the Sunni community, following the loss of the Ministries of Youth and Sports and Finance in the previous parliamentary term (2021-2025).

He emphasized the importance of establishing a joint working mechanism to prevent internal collapse over seat distribution, with clear criteria for selecting ministers and senior officials, and forming a fully empowered negotiating team to resolve disputes among Sunni bloc leaders.

The Iraqi expert warned that the council’s success is crucial, or Sunni blocs could lose their footing entirely. Its formation has already drawn criticism from internal rivals and regional actors poised to undermine the fledgling initiative.

A Tactical Move

Iraqi political analyst Mouayyad al-Douri called the council’s formation “a positive step,” but warned it could falter once positions are allocated, noting that al-Halbousi had previously blocked similar bloc-building efforts.

“Al-Halbousi may have prompted Khamis al-Khanjar to take this step to preempt any attempt to form a Sunni bloc that could marginalize him, potentially in coordination with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, with which his relations remain tense,” al-Douri told Al-Estiklal.

“The gathering of these factions sends a clear message of sharing the Sunni quota, similar to what happened within the Shiite Coordination Framework after al-Sudani joined it. Even al-Halbousi, who faced the risk of losing the parliamentary speakership, may be behind this council as an alternative strategy to avoid sidelining and maintain influence.”

“The Sunni Political Council could collapse if al-Halbousi does not win the speakership, since his role in forming the council is mainly to secure the position by uniting all Sunni forces behind his candidacy,” he added.

Sunni al-Hal party leader Jamal al-Karboli said on X on November 23, “There is no doubt that most members of the Sunni Coordination Framework have good or at least reasonable political intentions, but there is one among them who cannot be trusted, neither his intentions, his words, nor his promises. He only met with them to divide them.”

Observers suggest that Jamal al-Karboli’s post was aimed at his longtime rival, Mohamed al-Halbousi, whom he has accused for years of “ingratitude” toward those who helped him rise in Iraq’s political hierarchy. 

Al-Halbousi was a member of the al-Hal Party in 2014 when he won a seat in parliament and later became governor of Anbar in 2017 with the party’s backing, before disputes escalated and the two became bitter rivals.

Al-Halbousi is also accused of blocking al-Karboli from running in the recent parliamentary elections on November 11, leveraging his influence within the Independent High Electoral Commission, after al-Karboli had been a candidate for Anbar province.

Iraqi writer Raad al-Baydar, in a November 23 piece for Alhadath, described the announcement of the new National Political Council as another—perhaps final—attempt to overcome the political weakness that has plagued the Sunni community since 2003.

Al-Baydar noted that the council “is not a temporary coalition, but an implicit institutional acknowledgment of the elected Sunni leaders’ inability to coordinate and unite through traditional means. This weakness threatens their capacity to govern and address core issues in Sunni regions, including passing a general amnesty law, facilitating the return of the displaced, and rebuilding liberated cities.”

He explained that the council builds on a previous, failed attempt to form a Unified Sunni Leadership Coalition, which could not consolidate Sunni forces under one roof.

Al-Baydar concluded that the failure entrenched divisions within the Sunni arena, creating two rival poles—the al-Hal Party bloc and its opponents—leaving the community weakened in political negotiations. As a result, Sunni rights have become easy to seize, while the arena remains open for advancing Shiite and Kurdish agendas.