October 7, 2010 Iraq PM, US diplomat meet over government formation
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met a senior US diplomat on Wednesday over the country’s ongoing political stalemate, which has seen no new government formed since March elections, his office said.
The Iraqi premier met visiting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, as Iraq verges on completing seven months without a new administration.
“The prime minister expressed the hope that in the coming days, there would be openness in the ongoing negotiations between the political blocs to form a government of national partnership,” Maliki’s office said in a statement.
US Embassy spokesman David Ranz confirmed the meeting but said he could not comment on its content, or on how long Burns would be in Iraq.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington Monday that Burns would also visit Yemen and Jordan.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Kurdish negotiating team said on Wednesday that Iraq’s Kurdish lawmakers are close to allying themselves with Maliki, but Iraq may not have a new government this year.
Deputy Prime Minister Ross Nouri Shawis said that the Kurds, who are potential kingmakers now that Maliki has won the nomination of the major Shiite parties, have met twice with the incumbent and have verbal agreements on many of their demands.
“We went through details of the Kurdish demands … and we noticed that our point of views are very close,” Shawis told Reuters following a meeting with a small Shiite party, Fadhila. “I can say that we are 90 percent in agreement with each other.”
“But these were oral talks. Now, and before giving the final stand [approval] of the Kurdish blocs, these talks are to be put on paper, to turn them into written guarantees,” Shawis said.
The National Alliance, a merger of major Shiite blocs, named Maliki its nominee for a second term last week despite dissent within the coalition. Maliki won support from his own State of Law bloc and the Sadrist movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Support from the Sadrists was critical. They had previously opposed him for a second term, harboring bitterness since he sent troops to crush Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia in 2008.
With State of Law’s 89 seats and Sadr’s 39, Maliki would still be dozens of seats short of the 163 votes needed for a governing majority in Iraq’s 325-seat Parliament.
The Kurds’ 65 seats could bridge the gap.
Iraqis had hoped the March election would provide more stable governance after years of dictatorship and war but so far it has meant seven months of political wrangling and renewed fears of rising violence from a stubborn Islamist insurgency as US troops prepare to leave next year.
Asked if Iraq would have a new government by year’s end, Shawis said: “I don’t think so.”
In addition to reaching a written agreement with the Kurds, Maliki still has to settle differences within his own National Alliance and with other rival blocs.
The semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region has also had serious differences with Maliki’s government.
A row between Arbil, the Kurdish capital, and Baghdad halted oil exports from the region last year and they remain suspended.
The Kurdistan Regional Government signed contracts with foreign companies to develop oilfields in its territory. Baghdad considers the deals illegal.
