- IRBIL, Iraq: Leaders of Iraq’s major political blocs met Monday for the first time since March elections in a new push to break the eight-month deadlock over forming a new government.
- Car bombs struck the country’s two holiest cities and killed 16 people, a reminder that insurgents remain determined to destabilize the country.
The 90-minute meeting in the northern town of Irbil was the start of three days of negotiations that could signal the deeply divided political blocs are close to a power-sharing agreement in which Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki would keep his job. However, officials said there are still major obstacles to overcome.
Political blocs that in the past settled their differences in the streets remain deeply suspicious of one another.
Al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition won 89 seats compared with 91 for the Sunni-backed alliance headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in the March 7 election.
No party won an outright majority in the 325-seat Parliament, and the blocs have spent the past eight months haggling to form a new government.
The battle has come down to a contest between the Iranian-favored coalition of Al-Maliki along with followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr and Allawi’s Iraqiya coalition, which is pushing hard for limits to Al-Maliki’s power.
In recent weeks, momentum has turned in Al-Maliki’s favor after the prime minister picked up the support of the Sadrists — once his archrivals — and backing from a smaller coalition over the weekend.
But if Al-Maliki remains in office, the question then becomes what to do with Allawi and his coalition. Shutting Iraqiya — and Iraq’s Sunnis — out of the political process altogether could spell a return to the violence that once plagued the country if Sunnis become disillusioned. The US has been pushing hard for a government that would include all the major blocs, including Iraqiya.
