Baghdad, Oct. 17 (AKnews) – The ongoing dispute between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition (SLC) and former Prime Minister Ayyad Allawi’s Iraqiya List about the Erbil Agreement will most likely not be solved in the next couple of weeks.
Mohammed al-Khalidi, member of parliament and member of the Iraqi National Accord movement (INA), which Iraqiya List is a part of, said that the negotiations reached a “blocked end”.
“Most MPs and leaders of the blocs are outside the country — some of them headed to Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage — and if there was an intention to hold the meeting, it will be after the Eid al-Adha holiday,” Khalidi said.
This year, the three-day festival Eid al-Adha will start on November 7.
The Erbil Agreement ended an eight-months deadlock after no party had been able to win a majority in March 2010’s elections. It meant that Allawi agreed to allow Maliki to stay on as prime minister as long as a new tier of executive powers was created for Allawi.
This was to be in the form of the National Council for Strategic Policies, which would be able to propose laws and ensure “harmony and integration” of policy. However, disputes over its powers have meant that it is yet to be realized, and Maliki finally said that its implementation would be impractical.
Another element to the dispute stems from the fact that the three key security ministerial positions have remained unfilled since the new cabinet headed by Nuri al-Maliki was sworn in on December 2.
There have been crisis talks since al-Iraqiya List withdrew from the power sharing deal after the three month deadline passed in March. The meetings have been overseen by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (a Kurd), but appear to be making little progress.
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