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Saudi initiative rejected in Iraq, welcomed regionally

Arab World Materials 31 October 2010 20:32 (UTC +04:00)
An initiative by Saudi King Abdullah to resolve the political impasse in Iraq met a cool response from politicians in the country Sunday, as Gulf states backed the move as a step towards Iraqi reconciliation, dpa reported.
Saudi initiative rejected in Iraq, welcomed regionally

An initiative by Saudi King Abdullah to resolve the political impasse in Iraq met a cool response from politicians in the country Sunday, as Gulf states backed the move as a step towards Iraqi reconciliation, dpa reported.

The monarch invited leaders of the different blocs to meet in Riyadh after the Hajj pilgrimage ends late November in order to break a nearly eight-month deadlock on forming a new government.

Some Iraqi blocs said the offer, made on Saturday, was tantamount to foreign interference in Iraq's political process.

"We respect such an invitation by the Saudi monarch, but talks are continuing between the political blocs and there is an initiative by the president of the Kurdistan region," Kurdish politician Mahmoud Osman said.

"We want an internal Iraqi solution to the crisis," Osman said.

A member of caretaker Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law Coalition said "the initiative has come too late," although he welcomed it as a form of support for the Iraqi people.

"The initiative will complicate the political scene and delay the process of forming a new government," Hassan al-Saneed was quoted in press as saying.

Al-Saneed said lawmakers are now in talks to reconvene for a parliamentary session in the coming four days. Last week, Iraq's Supreme Court ordered the newly-elected parliament to reconvene.

The new 325-member parliament has since held only one session, which lasted just 20 minutes.

However, members of the secular Iraqiya List, led by former prime minsiter Iyad Allawi, welcomed the Saudi monarch's initiative.

"We believe it is a step in the right direction to form a government as soon as possible," Abdul-Karim al-Hattab, a member of the bloc said.

He added that the fact the meeting will be held under the auspices of the 22-nation Arab League, is a positive sign that it will not be another form of interference in Iraqi politics.

No single party won an outright majority in the election and attempts to realign parties and form new coalitions to secure a majority bloc have so far failed to produce a consensus for the top post of prime minister.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the invitation aims at unifying the Iraqi row and removing differences and their impact on the political movement in Iraq.

Several Gulf countries, such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, welcomed the king's offer and called on Iraqi politicians to treat it "carefully in the best interest of Iraq, its people and the region."

Since the election results were announced late March, there has been intense wrangling over the interpretation of the constitution regarding who would fill the country's top three posts of prime minister, president and speaker of parliament.

Over the past two months, Iraqi politicians have embarked on regional tours to visit allies and discuss developments concerning the impasse.

Politicians from the largely Shiite coalition known as the National Alliance said they would back al-Maliki to stay on.

However, Shiite politician Ammar al-Hakim, whose party is part of the alliance, has voiced opposition to such a move. He also accused Iran of swaying groups within the alliance to choose al-Maliki.

Allawi has made similar allegations against Tehran and refused to recognise the National Alliance, which was formed after the elections.

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