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BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s post-election strategy suggests he is prepared for a long and bitter fight to hold on to power, even if it alienates the country’s Sunni community and risks new sectarian warfare.
The Iraqi leader is trying all sorts of legal maneuvers to deny victory to his chief opponent, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose secular, nationalist bloc won the most parliamentary seats in the March 7 elections and presumably the right to try to form a new government.
Even if al-Maliki sticks with nominally legal measures, he risks serious damage to efforts to ease sectarian tensions.
