Iraq leaders reach deal on new government
Iraq leaders reach deal on new government
Iraqi leaders have reached a power-sharing agreement after a political stalemate that lasted more than eight months, officials said Thursday.
The deal came Wednesday after three days of talks between rival factions, said Ahmed Massari, a lawmaker with the Iraqiya political bloc.
Leaders will choose the speaker of parliament Thursday, Massari said.
Iraq's government had been in a stalemate since parliamentary elections in March.
The stalemate came at a critical period for Iraq, as the United States was drawing down its seven-year presence to a noncombat force.
"We reached a power -sharing deal but it is like assembling a car with different parts and hoping it will work," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker.
Shiite lawmaker Hassan al-Saneid told al-Iraqiya television that the deal will keep Nuri al-Maliki as prime minster and Jalal Talabani will remain president. The speaker of the house of parliament will be picked from the Iraqiya political bloc.
A committee called The National Council for the Strategic Policies was created in effort to reduce the power of the prime minister, Othman said.
That committee will be headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the lawmaker said.
All the political blocs made concessions to reach the agreement, according to Othman.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/as...iraq.politics/
Maliki to Keep Power in Iraq as Leaders End Deadlock Bloomberg November 11, 2010 04:00 AM Copyrig
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is set to retain power after the country's political leaders reached an initial accord to form a coalition, following eight months of political deadlock and a resurgence of violence.
Representatives of the main Shiite Muslim, Sunni and Kurdish parties met in Baghdad late yesterday and reached an agreement under which President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, would also keep his post, Hassan Sunaid, a lawmaker from al-Maliki's Shiite bloc, said in an interview today. The parliament speaker and the head of a newly created National Council for Political and Strategic Policies will come from former premier Ayad Allawi's Iraqiyah movement, which hasn't confirmed the deal.
Parliament, which has met only once since the March elections, will assemble at 3 p.m. local time today to choose the speaker and his two deputies, and will schedule a second session to elect a president, Sunaid said. The new president would then have 15 days to ask the largest bloc in parliament to choose a prime minister, who has 30 days to form a Cabinet.
Ending Iraq's power vacuum may help curb a rise in violence across the country that left hundreds killed. The new government, which will take office as the U.S. prepares to pull its remaining troops out of Iraq next year, must address long- standing disagreements over issues including Iraq's internal boundaries and rights to its oil and gas.
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Allawi's Iraqiyah bloc hasn't confirmed the agreement. The group "did not take any decision yet" on whether al-Maliki or Talabani should stay in their posts, said Alia Nsayyef, a member of the movement, in a phone interview.
Iraqiyah was meeting today to assess possible candidates for the speakership and the strategic council, Nsayyef said. The party will support Usama Al-Najafi for the speakership, Al Jazeera television reported today.
Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdish region, said on al- Arabiya television today that there is a consensus on nominations for the three top political posts.
'Very Responsible'
Allawi's Iraqiyah "behaved in a very responsible manner" by agreeing to the plan, Barzani said. He said he expected the U.S., which had previously advocated "changing some positions including the president," would support the proposed coalition.
The proposed accord comes after a series of meetings between Iraqi leaders, who have been urged by the U.S. and regional countries to overcome their differences and form a government. They held talks in Erbil, the Kurdish capital, on Nov. 8 and followed that with a series of meetings in Baghdad.
None of the parties had won enough seats in the March 7 parliamentary vote to take office alone. Allawi's al-Iraqiyah, backed by Sunni and secular voters, won 91 seats in the 325- member assembly compared with the 89 secured by the State of Law group headed by al-Maliki, which later won backing from other Shiite blocs.
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