Iraq: Maliki Formally Charged With Forming New Government

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was formally charged with forming a new government on Thursday by President Jalal Talabani. However, Reider Visser contends that “President Jalal Talabani today repeated exactly what he did on 11 November: He charged Nuri al-Maliki with forming the next government. [...] Everyone knows that the real reason Talabani did this was to give Maliki more time to form the next government, ostensibly 30 days, but everyone knows that that deadline, in turn, will be violated too.”

In the Los Angeles Times, Ned Parker looks at the Sadrist Movement and its leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and the gains they have made since the March elections. “In recent months, Maliki’s government has freed hundreds of controversial members of the Shiite Muslim cleric’s Mahdi Army and handed security positions to veteran commanders of the militia.” Members of the Sadrist Movement have also assumed high level positions in the Interior Ministry as well as winning the deputy speakership of the parliament.