Source: Maliki to announce new majority coalition backed by Talabani, Barzani and Hakim

Above: The major players -- Nuri al-Maliki (Prime Minister, Shiite), Tariq al-Hashemi (one of two Vice Presidents, Sunni), Moqtada al-Sadr ('fiery' anti-American cleric, Shiite), Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim (head of the largest Shiite coalition), Jalal Talabani (President of Iraq, Kurd, Qadiri Sufi sect of Sunnism), and Massoud Barzani (President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Naqshbandi Sufi sect of Sunnisim). Six Sadrist cabinet ministers quit Maliki's cabinet in April over his refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and Sadr's parliamentary bloc is boycotting the legislature in protest of the bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra last month. Yesterday the U.S. military said that Sadr has gone back to Iran. The main Sunni Arab bloc is also boycotting cabinet and parliament meetings over what it says is unfair treatment of its members.

Baghdad - A deputy close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki told reporters Monday that an agreement would be reached next week 'regarding the creation of a four-way coalition' in the Iraqi parliament, consisting of at least 140 deputies.

In remarks to state newspaper al-Sabah, Hassan al-Saneed, a member of the Shiite ruling bloc the United Iraqi Alliance which has 128 seats in parliament, said that the four-way coalition would include the Islamic Da'wa party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and the two main Kurdish parties.

The agreement, reportedly set for next week, will be announced by al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, the head of the Kurdish autonomous region Massoud Barzani and Ammar al-Hakim of SIIC.

The move, according to al-Saneed, aims at 'unifying political positions inside the parliament in addition to supporting the government of Mr. al-Maliki.' He added that it should end 'sectarian blocs and the principle of quotas.'

Read the rest at M&C

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