Abdulmahdi: We will not take part in failed government

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Vice President and a leading figure of the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), Adel Abdulmahdi, said on Tuesday that his bloc will not take part in a government that will fail, underlining on the importance of al-Iraqiya and Dawlat al-Qanoon’s participation. This came at a press conference he hled after the consultative meeting in the parliament, attended by IraqiNews.com news agency correspondent. “The INA will not take part in a government which will not be approved by all political blocs. The new government will not succeed without the participation of State of Law (Dawlat al-Qanoon) and al-Iraqiya List,” he said. He underlined that he will not attend the National Coalition meeting, because no one invited him to attend it. 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. SH (S)/SR 1