Iraq witnessed positive political developments concerning talks for formation of the new government. With the announcement of merger by the State of Law Coalition and the Iraqi National Alliance, the Kurdistan coalition as well as the Sunni Islamic Party, have declared readiness to join the national reconciliation trend for the broad-based unity government. Despite desperate efforts by the US occupation authorities and certain reactionary Arab regimes, both of whom had meddled with the election process to hand over the marginal al-Iraqiyya of former Ba’thist Iyad Allawi a surprising 91 seats in the parliament, the Sunni Accord Front has also expressed willingness to join in the new government taking shape. The Kurds have said they will support any candidate nominated for the prime minister’s post by the Shi’ite Muslim bloc that represents the long suppressed majority of the country. The representative of Iraq’s senior-most religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Sistani has called for speedy efforts to name the new cabinet.

The manual recounting of ballot boxes of Baghdad Province started last week and according to the Iraqi High Election Commission the recounting would take at least three weeks. It is widely believed that most of the rigging was done in favour of Allawi and his marginal party under pressure from the US and the bribes of Saudi Arabia and other reactionary Arab regimes.

The trip of Prime Minister Maliki’s aide to Syria and his meeting with President Bashar Assad had reflections in the regional media.

It was disclosed by the British daily The Independent that British occupation forces in Iraq had a hand in the US-led American chemical bombardment of Falluja

Last week two consecutive blasts in Mosul killed and injured more than eighty people.

As said earlier, backed by the Iraqi masses, the State of Law Coalition of incumbent premier, Nuri al-Maliki, and the National Alliance made up Supreme Islamic Assembly Chief, Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Ammar al-Hakim and the Sadrists, have decided to merge. This positive development makes the alliance the largest single bloc in the newly elected parliament with 163 seats, thus eclipsing for good the 91 seats that were surprisingly allotted under American pressure and Arab money to former Ba’thist Iyad Allawi’s marginal group, al-Iraqqiya. With the 43-seat Kurdish coalition of President Jalal Talabani announcing its backing for the country’s Shi’ite Muslim majority and its choice of prime minister, coupled with declarations of support by some Sunni parties, the national unity government is certain to take shape since now the allies have between them more than 200 seats of the 325-seat parliament. In the statement read by senior officials of the two alliances, it was noted that the goal behind the merger is to materialize the legitimate aims and aspirations of the people of Iraq. It is interesting to note that following the start of recounting of votes in Baghdad Province, several groups of the Arab Sunni minority of Iraq, realizing that Allawi’s fraud was sure to be exposed, have voiced readiness to join Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim majority in forming the national reconciliation government. This is likely to reduce the number of the surprising 91 seats that the Americans had gifted to Allawi. Secretary General of Islamic Party, Osama Takriti, expressed happiness over the merger of the two principal Shi’ite groups and appealed to all political groups to set aside differences joint the positive political trend.

The Iraqi Presidential Council held an emergency meeting last week to help resolve the current post-election problems. The meeting coincided with the recounting of the ballot boxes of Baghdad Province. Meanwhile, the Iraqi National Alliance called on the al-Iraqiyya Coalition of former Ba’thist and currently US-backed candidate, Iyad Allawi, to accept the results of the recounting. A member of the National Alliance, Mohammad Naji, advised al-Iraqiyya that its threat to pull out of political trend before the announcement of the results of the recounting is not a wise decision. In recent days, al-Iraqiyya has tried to make the Iraqi atmosphere tense through its provocative calls for outside interference in the deadlock following the parliamentary elections held last March. It is worth noting that al-Iraqiyya was surprisingly awarded with the most number of seats, that is, 91 in the parliamentary polls, which analysts believe was due to US meddling and the hundreds of millions of dollars that have flowed into the country from Saudi Arabia and other reactionary Arab regimes which do not want a stable and democratic Iraq. Concern over delay in forming the new government and bringing up marginal and unimportant issues by some political currents have complicated the situation in Iraq. The heads of Iraq’ three braches of government have tried to ease the current unstable atmosphere through consultations with the different political currents.