Iraq VP enters contest for PM post

Iraqi Vice President and head of political party National Coalition, Adel Abdul Mehdi, said that he received nomination support to be Iraq’s next prime minister from Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya List as well as Kurdish blocs, but said Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law bloc gave him limited support for the PM candidacy.

Iraq’s March 7 election produced no outright winner and led to a political stalemate with Allawi contending to fill the prime minister's post as he won 91 seats in comparison to 89 seats to al-Maliki’s State of Law bloc.

Abdul Mehdi told Al Arabiya talk show “Who Will Rule Iraq” presented by Suhair al-Qaysei and which is scheduled to be aired on Sunday that Allawi’s backing was “overt and direct,” thereby changing the conventional rivalry to fill the premiership position, which is until now contested by Allawi and Maliki . Allawi had demanded that it is his constitutional right to be Iraq’s PM.

Abdul Mehdi’s announcement came after his negotiations with Iraqiya List blocs and his meetings with the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani and Kurdish negotiator Roznori Shawish.

Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani, who is also a Kurd, invited parliamentarians to hold a parliament’s session to jostle Iraq’s political stalemate and try to form a new government.

On Friday Talabani said Iraq’s presidency does not have to be delegated to a Kurd as it is not a constitutional requirement but Kurds will not cease their demand to include Kirkuk to be part of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The oil rich region produced about a quarter of May’s 58.7 million barrels exports.

Abdul Mehdi, in an interview with a Turkish newspaper, said that he believes that Iraq will gradually integrate its people and that “Kirkuk should be an independent region, not belonging to any other. However, it could have special relations with Kurdistan or with any other region.”

(Written by Dina al-Shibeeb)