Hakim, U.S. amb. discuss means to speed up govt. formation

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council Leader Ammar al-Hakim met on Sunday with U.S. ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey and deliberated over efforts exerted by the Iraqi political blocs to accelerate formation of a new government, according to the SIIC web site. “Hakim emphasized the importance of forming a genuine national partnership government that excludes no part of the active actors on the Iraqi political chessboard,” the SIIC web site said. 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 Barazani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as well as a number of Kurdish Islamic parties with 57 seats. AmR (S) 1