False alarm

Yes. That's what the post from July 8 was. It was very disappointing because Maliki did in fact make such statement and it was reported the next day by numerous local and Arab sources. It was probably a statement that he made without enough thinking or without the approval of other powerful members of his coalition.

Anyway, it's been 20 weeks since the election and there's still no sign of a solution. The prospects of proposals and potential solutions fluctuated so much that it's even tougher to predict what's going to happen than it was last time in '05-'06.

For some reason a number of politicians are expecting the UN Security Council to intervene decisively and even take over government formation process after a meeting scheduled for August 4. I don't know where or why they got this impression!

Maliki Concedes the Premiership to Allawi

It looks like Allawi is about to get what he deserves as the winner in the March 7 election:

Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said that he is not opposed to having al-Iraqiya bloc of Ayad Allawi form the new government, if the matter was conducted in accordance with constitutional guidelines.


Maliki added at a joint press conference with Lebanese counterpart Saad Hariri that he believes in the peaceful and constitutional turnover of power. Maliki explained that “when someone comes and shows that he can secure [parliamentary] majority in accordance with the constitution, we will all go with him.”

Now all that is needed to finalize the deal is to get the Kurds to sign in on it. The Kurdish top leaders are having their own meetings today to decide their final position. Yesterday they spoke with Allawi and with VP Biden. If the Kurdish leaders agree to relinquish the Presidency and accept alternatives like the Speaker of Parliament position, things can progress really fast.