Iraqi MPs meet as government formation continues

Biden calls for continued US engagement in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Al Arabiya.net, AFP)

Iraqi MPs were to meet Sunday for the first time since the Muslim Eid holiday but hopes a new government would be formed quickly were dampened on news Nouri al-Maliki would not be named premier-designate for days. Newly re-elected President Jalal Talabani was not expected to officially ask Maliki to form a cabinet until Thursday, a parliamentary official said, so as to give the incumbent prime minister more time to negotiate ministerial posts. Under Iraq’s constitution, Talabani has 15 days to appoint a prime minister following his selection by MPs on November 11. He had earlier been expected to name Maliki as premier on Sunday.

Once named, Maliki would have 30 days to form a government.

Sunday’s scheduled session of parliament, still only the fourth since March elections, was to focus on the establishment of its committees and regulations, the parliamentary official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It comes after a power-sharing pact was agreed earlier this month and lauded by international leaders including US President Barack Obama, although the agreement has looked fragile ever since.

The deal called for Maliki, a Shiite, and Talabani, a Kurd, to keep their jobs and for a Sunni Arab to selected speaker of parliament.

It also established a new statutory body to oversee security as a sop to ex-premier Iyad Allawi, who had held out for months to regain the top job after his Iraqiya bloc narrowly won the most seats in the March 7 poll.

The support of Iraqiya, which garnered most of its seats in Sunni areas, is widely seen as vital to preventing a resurgence of inter-confessional violence.

The Sunni Arab minority that dominated Saddam Hussein’s regime was the bedrock of the anti-U.S. insurgency after the 2003 invasion.
In a sign of the tenuousness of the accord, around 60 Iraqiya MPs walked out of a session of parliament on November 11, the day after the deal was signed, protesting that it was not being honored.

The bloc’s MPs had wanted three of its senior members, barred before the election for their alleged ties to Saddam’s banned Baath party, to be reinstated immediately.

Two days later, however, Iraq’s lawmakers appeared to have salvaged the deal after leaders from the country’s three main parties met and agreed to reconcile and address the MPs’ protests.

Calls for continued engagement

Also on Sunday, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden called for continued U.S. engagement in Iraq, arguing that the country still faced big challenges on the road to security and prosperity.

“The United States must also continue to do its part to reinforce Iraq’s progress,” Biden wrote in an op-ed piece in The New York Times. “That is why we are not disengaging from Iraq — rather, the nature of our engagement is changing from a military to a civilian lead.”

A security accord requires all U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011, but officials in both countries have suggested a smaller U.S. mission will probably stay on after next year to provide air power and other military assistance.

About 50,000 U.S. troops are currently in Iraq under a new “advise and assist” mission with Iraqi forces taking the lead.

But Biden said that Iraq’s security forces were not yet ready to operate fully on their own.

“That is why, even at this difficult economic time, we are asking Congress to fulfill our budget requests to support America’s continued engagement, including our broader diplomatic presence, a modernization plan for the Iraqi security forces and financing for a police development program,” the vice president wrote.