Shafaq News / Haider al-Mulla, a leader in the Iraqi Forces coalition that includes Sunni political forces, said on Monday that the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani cannot fill the void left by the assassination of al- Quds Force commander in the Revolutionary Guards Qassem Soleimani.

Al-Mulla told Shafaq News that "Iran cannot form the Iraqi government, as it has been doing in previous years," adding that "the issue of forming the new Iraqi government occupies the Iranian side, so Iraq is an important arena for the Iranians."

He added that "Iran pressed to pass the government of Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi, but in the end it failed," stressing that "the Iraqi political actor is now stronger than the regional or international actor in the stage we are currently living in."

The secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, had arrived on Saturday night to Baghdad at the head of a high-level political-security delegation, and he met both the President of the Republic, Barham Salih, the resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, the National Security Adviser and the head of the National Intelligence Service Mustafa al-Kazemi, and confirmed that his country wants to form a strong and effective Iraqi government.