BAGHDAD — The leaders of two rival political alliances battling to run Iraq’s new government took a step toward ending their power dispute Saturday, as the Sunni-backed coalition that won March elections faces being sidelined in parliament.
The 90-minute meeting between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and former Premier Ayad Allawi was their first since the March 7 vote. It was described by aides as more of an icebreaker than the start of serious negotiations.
The secular but Sunni-dominated Iraqiya coalition that Allawi heads risks losing a grasp on its narrow electoral triumph due to infighting and outmaneuvering by al-Maliki and his fellow Shiite rivals.
As the new legislature convenes Monday, that prospect is serving as a lesson in Iraq’s nascent democracy, where rules can bend. It also, more ominously, raises the possibility of a revitalized insurgency if Sunnis conclude that they have no place in government as U.S. troops pull out of Iraq.
“That’s why it’s important to have a unity government,” Army Gen. Ray Odierno, top U.S. commander in Iraq, said at a Pentagon news conference last week. “We don’t want to see any group that feels it’s been disenfranchised and even contemplates moving back to an insurgency.”
Iraqiya’s election victory was heralded as a groundbreaking step toward a secular Iraqi government after years of Sunni-Shiite tensions.
