Qaani arrives soon in Baghdad to meet the leaders of the Coordination Framework

Shafaq News / The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Esmail Qaani, is expected to arrive in Baghdad in the next few hours, a source in the Coordination Framework reported.

The source told Shafaq News agency that Qaani will meet the Framework's leaders late at night today, before tomorrow's presidential election session.

The meeting will discuss unifying the Shiite forces before the session, through converging views between the Sadrist movement and the Coordination Framework.

The Framework does not support a specific candidate for the Presidency, but a suitable one will be agreed upon during the session's early hours, according to the source.

The forces of the Shiite Coordination Framework are scheduled to meet later today, Sunday, on the eve of the parliament session called to elect a president of the republic.

The leading figure in the consortium of the Shiite forces objecting to the October 10 polls results, MP Ahmed al-Mousawi, told Shafaq News Agency that the meeting will revolve around whether the Coordination Framework will participate in tomorrow's session or not.

"We are awaiting the decision that will emerge from the meeting," he said.

The largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament, led by powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, announced Saturday a boycott of a session called on Monday to elect the country's president.

The 73-member bloc's parliamentary chief, Hassan al-Azzari, told a news conference they will not attend Monday's session in the 329-seat house, making a vote unlikely although technically a quorum could be reached.

The vote for president, a role traditionally reserved for the Kurds in post-2003 Iraq, primarily pits the incumbent Barham Saleh against his top challenger, former minister Hoshyar Zebari, candidate of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Spurred by the sweeping victory over their Kurdish rivals, the KDP seeks to adjust the terms of the long-standing allotment that allowed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to keep the post of the president since 2003.