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Finally! Iraqis Agree to Form Government Eight Months After Election
Deals allows Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki to remain in power.
Nov. 11, 2010— -- One of the longest awaited election results in history appears to be at an exhausting, and not entirely, unexpected end.
Just over eight months since the March 7 national elections, Iraqi political parties finally agreed to a power-sharing deal paving the way for the formation of a new government.
Kamal Al Saidi, member of the National Alliance Party, called the deal "a new era for Iraq," adding "Iraq will be safer despite expected attacks from Al-Qaeda in Iraq."
More than 3,300 Iraqis have died in violence across the country since the March elections and thousands more injured as insurgents have tested the weak government combined with the drawdown of U.S. combat forces.
Under the terms of the deal Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will keep his job, but is expected to make broad concessions to challenger Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya coalition.
Allawi, whose party bested Maliki's in the March elections but could never get muster the seats to put himself in the prime minister's job, could take a brand new position as head of the National Council of Supreme Policy, which is expected to have wide ranging power in security and other matters. It's still not clear, however, what the mandate of this organization will be and from where its power will be derived. It's equally unclear whether Allawi himself will take the job of appoint someone of his choosing.
The mainly ceremonial post of president will remain with Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani while the powerful parliamentary speaker's job will go to a Sunni as will the position of foreign minister. That position is currently held by the Kurd Hoshayar Zebari.
To achieve the deal the government has already had to make its way through several political minefields, most notably on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Kurds have long wanted a referendum to decide the future of the city and whether it should become part of a greater Kurdistan. The government in Baghdad and the minority Turkmen population in Kirkuk have both heavily resisted any moves by the Kurds to appropriate Kirkuk and its oil wealth. It appears that Mailiki has agreed to proceed with a census and referendum in Kirkuk, but the timing and process remains to be seen.
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