BAGHDAD: Iraqs top Shia cleric called on the country’s lawmakers on Friday to agree on a prime minister within the next four days, a dramatic political intervention to avert months of wrangling in the face of al-Qaeda inspired insurgent blitz over huge tracts in the country’s north and west.
Grand Ayatollah Syed Ali Hussaini Sistani, who commands unswerving loyalty from Shias in Iraq and beyond, said political blocs should agree on the next premier, president and parliament speaker before a newly elected legislature meets on Tuesday.
Sistani’s intervention makes it difficult for Maliki to stay on as caretaker leader as he has since a parliamentary election in April. That means he must either build a coalition to confirm himself in power for a third term or step aside.
Sistani’s message was delivered by his representative in the holy shrine of Karbala during Friday prayers after a meeting of political factions, including Nouri Maliki’s State of Law coalition again failed to agree on a consensus candidate for prime minister.
The embattled Maliki accused his political foes of trying to prevent parliament from meeting on time and stirring up violence to interfere with the political process.
They worked to postpone the elections… and now they are working to postpone the first session of the council of representatives… but if they are not able to pressure us to postpone, they will go for inciting security incidents in Baghdad, he said during a televised meeting with commanders.
Al-Maliki won the most votes in April elections, and his State of Law bloc won the most seats by far. But he failed to gain the majority needed to govern alone, leaving him in need of allies to retain his post.
That has set the stage for what could be months of arduous coalition negotiations. After 2010 elections, it took Iraqi politicians nine months to agree on a new prime minister. Now, unlike four years ago, the territorial cohesion of Iraq is at stake.
Over the past fortnight, militants have overrun most majority Sunni areas in northern and western Iraq with little resistance, advancing to within an hour’s drive of Baghdad.
Iraq’s million-strong army, trained and equipped by the United States at a cost of some $25 billion, largely evaporated in the north after the militants launched their assault with the capture of Mosul on June 10.
The development prompted Sistani to issue an edict calling on all able bodied Iraqis to stand up to the onslaught by the shadowy force, The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS).
Hundreds of thousands of volunteers responded to Sistani’s call to rally behind the military to defeat the insurgents.
Seizing on the sense of urgency, Ayatollah Sistani finally set up a deadline for formation of new government by Tuesday.
Doing so would be a “prelude to the political solution that everyone seeks at the present,” his representative Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie said in his address at the Imam Hussain shrine, which the advancing insurgents have threatened to demolish.
In Washington, the Obama administration backed Sistani’s call for Iraqi leaders to agree on a new government “without delay.”
“It’s my understanding he was calling for a process that’s in line with the constitution, just to do it very quickly,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. “Which we certainly agree with because we think the situation is so serious that they need to move with urgency.”
Eighty four year old Iranian born Sistani, though reclusive, who shuns publicity, has generally been a calming influence in Iraq ever since his release from years of house arrest after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein.
In 2003, Sistani’s call for quick elections forced U.S. to scrap plans for a long period of rule by leadership in effect appointed by the U.S military. It was a major change of course that gave Iraqis primarily the Shia majority a voice at the ballot. Sistani also urged people to vote.
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