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| Iraq |
| Decision to form govt. would be Iraqi one, Maliki sez |
| 2010-08-02 |
| BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stressed during a meeting with a U.S. White House delegation on Sunday that the decision to form a new government would be purely Iraqi away from any foreign interferences, according to a statement by his office. “Prime Minister Maliki received today (Aug. 1) a White House delegation and had talks over bilateral relations between the two countries and means to activate the strategic framework agreements,” read the statement as received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The delegation expressed the United States’ readiness to back the efforts exerted by the Iraqi political blocs to form a government,” it added. The political chessboard in Iraq has been experiencing non-stop differences among the key blocs that won seats in the March 2010 legislative elections over the premiership and the government formation, namely between Maliki’s Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) and former Premier Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya bloc. Several parliament sessions were postponed while the set constitutional deadline to election a new speaker and a president of a republic was breached. The elections saw al-Iraqiya winning 91 seats, followed by Maliki’s State of Law with 89 seats, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), which comprises Ammar al-Hakim’s Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), Muqtada al-Sadr’s Movement and Fadila (Virtue) Party, with 70 seats and the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) with 57 seats. The results prompt coalitions of several parties to guarantee a required majority at the 325-seat parliament in order to form a government. |
| Posted by:Steve White |