Photo taken on Aug. 8, 2018 shows a general view of the United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Iraq at the UN headquarters in New York. The United Nations on Wednesday urged Iraqi political leaders to seize the opportunity to speed up the national government formation. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

The United Nations on Wednesday urged Iraqi political leaders to seize the opportunity to speed up the national government formation.

Jan Kubis, UN secretary-general's special representative for Iraq, urged Iraq's political leaders "to listen to the voice of the people, seize the opportunity and accelerate the process of formation of a patriotic, inclusive and non-sectarian national government that will put all the rich resources of Iraq at the disposal and for the benefit of its people, and will ensure full sovereignty and real independence of Iraq, free from foreign interference."

Following the parliamentary elections on May 12, complaints and allegations of electoral fraud and mismanagement resulted in the decision to conduct a partial manual ballot recount, thereby delaying establishment of a new government, he said.

Kubis told the Security Council that he welcomed the orderly, transparent, credible and well-organized conduct of the recount.

He also provided details of the public demonstrations that started on July 8, in Basra Governorate, which subsequently escalated and spread to other southern governorates.

Although the scale of protest has now decreased, he added, demonstrations are far from over, including around major oil installations in Basra.