Winning coalition to visit Iran and other neighboring countries

Mar 31, 2010, 14:18 GMT

Baghdad - The winning parliamentary election coalition, the Iraqi List, said Wednesday it would be visiting Iraq's neighbours to explain moves to form a government.

A statement said the coalition will be 'sending delegates on a regional tour to several neighboring countries to discuss the political situation and the List's steps towards forming a national coalition government.'

The Iraqi List, headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, won the highest number of seats in the March 7 parliamentary elections. However, since no group secured one third of the seats, the formation of the new government remains unclear until new blocs are formed.

According to independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq, the Iraqi List's regional negotiation tour will include a visit to Iran.

Hussein al-Shaalat of the Iraqi List said delegates would be sent to Iran 'with the main goal of meeting Muqtada al-Sadr, an important leader in the Iraqi political scene.'

Current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, which came in a close second in the race, held talks with the influential Shiite cleric earlier this week in an attempt to gain his backing.

The move was then criticized by Allawi and his coalition, who called it a clear example of foreign interference in internal Iraqi affairs.

Al-Sadr's followers ran with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of Shiite religious parties that came a close second to al- Maliki's bloc in many predominantly Shiite provinces in southern Iraq.

The INA's 70 seats in the new parliament could make it an indispensable part of any ruling coalition.

Sadrist politicians, who won 40 of the INA's seats, have expressed reservations about a government led by Allawi, who presided over a joint US-Iraqi military campaign against them when he was prime minister in 2004.