Allawi-Assad meeting positive – spokesperson

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Spokesperson of the al-Iraqiya List described on Wednesday the meeting between Iyad Allawi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as positive. “The meeting was positive and the Syrian government said it has significant relations with all Iraqi blocs and with Iran too, and will play a role in supporting Iraqis to form their government,” Mayson al-Damlouji told IraqiNews.com news agency. Allawi had headed for Damascus on Tuesday (Sept. 28) in response to an invitation from the Syrian President to discuss the latest developments in Iraq. Assad had held talks with Allawi last July on forming the Iraqi government. Differences among political blocs reached their zenith between the main two blocs, al-Iraqiya of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the State of Law of incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, with the first obtaining 91 out of the new parliament‘s 325 seats while the second obtained 89. The State of Law formed a coalition with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) to garner the largest number of seats in the new parliament. This claim was rejected by al-Iraqiya bloc, which argued that it had been the winner of the largest number of seats in the parliament and that it has the right to form the new government. Iraq’s March 7 nationwide elections had ended with four main Iraqi political blocs obtaining most seats, as Iraqiya won 91 seats, followed by Maliki’s State of Law with 89 seats, Ammar Al-Hakim’s INA with 70 seats and the Kurdistan Alliance of Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as well as a number of Kurdish Islamic parties with 57 seats. SH (P) 1