Baghdad, Iraq – Iraq’s prime minister-designate announced Tuesday he was close to forming a new government before this Monday’s deadline.
Not so fast, responded Sunni Arab groups who claimed there’s a long way to go.
Any final agreement appeared to hinge on whether the largest Shiite bloc in parliament could strike a deal with the largest Sunni bloc over the interior and defense ministries.
In other developments, a U.S. soldier died when a roadside bomb exploded near Rasheed airfield, a former Iraqi air-force installation in Baghdad. Two other soldiers were killed Monday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.
Those attacks raised to at least 2,448 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the start of the war in 2003, according to an AP count.
Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki said his Cabinet was “mostly complete” after meeting with deputies from the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance party, which controls 130 seats in the 275-member parliament.
At least one Western diplomat in Baghdad who was well informed about the negotiations said he thought al-Maliki would name a full Cabinet by Monday’s constitutionally mandated deadline. He did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks.
But Sunnis – represented by their dominant bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front – have pressed for a complete deal. They have insisted on the Defense Ministry, which controls the army, to offset the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, which controls the police.
Khalaf al-Ilyan, a senior deputy with the Accordance Front, complained that al-Maliki had not yet “announced whether the Defense Ministry has been given to the Accordance Front or not,” and said that Sunni Arabs would insist on the portfolio “because we represent half of the society.”
If al-Maliki fails to make Monday’s deadline, President Jalal Talabani will have 15 days to designate another nominee, who will then have 30 days to form a Cabinet.
The constitution does not specifically rule out reappointing al-Maliki, in effect giving him more time to complete the process.
Escalating violence across the country left at least 36 people dead Tuesday.
