Iraq's al-Maliki, top Shiite cleric discuss government coalitions

May 29, 2010, 12:58 GMT

Najaf, Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met with influential Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf Saturday to discuss the political process and the formation of a new government.

'Sistani called for positive interaction between political parties to form a government which must embrace all Iraqis and abide by the constitution,' al-Maliki told reporters after their meeting.

Tension is rising in Iraq, with no signs of a new government to be formed anytime soon - more than two months after the parliamentary elections.

The results of the March 7 elections showed al-Maliki's State of Law coalition coming in second place with 89 seats after the Iraqiya List, led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi, which got 91 seats in the 325-member parliament.

'(The revered cleric) does not interfere in the Federal Court's decision on which is the biggest bloc, and as far as I know and understand al-Sistani he will not interfere in such issues,' al-Maliki added.

As the results have not been ratified by the Federal Court yet, and no bloc has patched together a large enough coalition to form a government on its own, Allawi insists he has the right to form a new government because his party won the highest number of seats.

However, al-Maliki said he has the right to form the government after his after his recent alliance with the Iraqi National list, that formed the largest faction in parliament with 159 deputies.

Yet, that number is still four seats short of a working majority, and both sides cannot agree on who will head the government.

The 83-year-old al-Sistani is the country's most revered Shiite cleric.

After the 2003 US-led invasion, he rejected a US plan to transfer sovereignty to an unelected provisional government in 2004, out of concern that the country's majority sect will be marginalized again, as they were during Saddam Hussein's rule.