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3/30/2010 12:29 PM ET Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi said Iraqis were worried about political talks on government formation being held in Iran as it would lead to a redrawing of the war-ravaged country's map along sectarian lines. Hashimi's remarks came during a free-wheeling chat with a prominent Iraqi regional daily. "Iraqis are very worried about the meetings (in Iran) because they signal the redrawing of the political map along sectarian lines," al-Hashimi said. According to him, the interference of neighboring countries in Iraq's internal affairs was quite evident, in an apparent reference to Iran. The country has witnessed intense political activity ever since the results of the Parliamentary elections were announced last Friday which showed the Iraqi List combine headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi winning by a narrow margin. Continued........... http://www.rttnews.com/Content/PoliticalNews.aspx?Id=1255563&SM=1

Three weeks after Iraq's national elections, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill says onlookers are closely following the ways political blocs could merge and regroup in an effort to gain enough power to build a coalition government. Results are not yet certified, but an unofficial complete tally of the elections has two centrist parties in the lead. Former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya party has 91 seats, and current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law Coalition is only two seats behind with 89. Speaking to reporters in Washington via satellite from his office in Baghdad, Ambassador Hill said Iraqi politicians are working to put together coalitions to gain a clear majority. He explained that while Mr. Allawi's Iraqiya party might have a two-seat advantage at the moment, Mr. Maliki's coalition could still come out ahead. "If Mr. Maliki's coalition is able to merge with another element, they could end up with more seats than Iraqiya," said Ambassador Hill. "And therefore, they would have the first crack at forming a coalition." Ambassador HIll said he believes it is too early to tell how this will play out. He explained that political observers are split as to whether Mr. Allawi or Mr. Maliki or even a third politician will be able to build a broad-enough coalition to garner more than 50 percent of parliament's 325 seats. "So there is a lot of talk about if these top two candidates are not able to form a government, whether or who would be a third possibility," he said. Prime Minister Maliki has said he does not accept the results of the March 7 election. But that does not appear to have dampened Hill's praise for the poll, which he called "very credible." "I will say that, you know, as in any close election, you know, it's not easy to lose a close election. If you look at the - the differential, it was, you know, 0.045 percent," said Hill. "You know, that's not fun to lose an election like that. So I don't think people should be too surprised that there's some comments that reflect the - you know, the anguish of losing." There were concerns that there would be an uptick in violence post-election or evidence that Iraq's neighbors, namely Iran, would interfere with the formation of the Baghdad government. Hill said there has not been an increase in attacks. And he said that while Iraq's neighbors naturally are interested in the Iraqi government, he has not seen evidence of a rise in meetings between officials from Iraq and its border nations. Still, he said, a number of countries have strong views about the kind of government they would like to see in Baghdad. "But I think the Iraqi people have even stronger views, and I don't think the Iraqi people would stand for a government that is not homemade," said Christopher Hill. Hill said Iraqis are more concerned about seeing economic development and improved services such as electricity than they are with what he called "the high politics of dealing with Iran." The U.S. ambassador also said that any Iraqi politician who ignores the will of the people "would be making big mistake." Hill says the new parliament is expected to take its seats in late April. http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/US-Focuses-on-Coalition-Building-in-Iraq-89551692.html

07:35 AM Mar 31, 2010BAGHDAD (AP) - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's strategy suggests he is prepared for a long and bitter fight to hold on to power. The Iraqi leader is trying all sorts of legal maneuvers to deny victory to his chief opponent, former prime minister Ayad Allawi, whose secular bloc won the most parliamentary seats in the March 7 elections and presumably the right to try to form a new government. One potentially explosive issues concerns a committee's attempts to disqualify some winning candidates. Al-Maliki has benefited from its actions; at least four candidates targeted by the committee are from Allawi's party list. At a satellite news conference from Baghdad with reporters at the State Department, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill declined to speculate on whether al-Maliki or Allawi would be able to form a coalition government. http://www.todayonline.com/BreakingNews/EDC100331-0000131/Iraqi-PM-uses-legal-maneuvers-to-hold-on-to-power-despite-risks-of-sectarian-warfare

March 31, 2010 Al Jaafari likely to bow to Iran request to bury differences with Al Maliki Dubai: Major Shiite groups are in talks to form a bigger coalition ahead of the first meeting of the newly-elected parliament in 10 days. According to reports, talks are under way between the representatives from the State of Law bloc, led by the outgoing prime minister Nouri Al Maliki and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA). The State of Law bloc, the second largest group with 89 seats, is mainly formed from Dawa Party, while the INA, an alliance of three Shiite groups, is an offshoot of Dawa Party with Ebrahim Al Jaafari, Ammar Al Hakim of the Higher Islamic Council and Moqtada Al Sadr as its leaders. Aides to incumbent Al Maliki on Monday met with Al Sadr in the Iranian city of Qom to discuss moves to form a coalition government. Al Jaafari, the former leader of Dawa, quit the party some two years ago because of Al Maliki's alleged dictatorial attitude. As both blocs have strong ties with Iran, Al Jaafari might bow to a request from the Iranian leadership to patch up his differences with Al Maliki. Al Maliki was quoted as saying that he was willing to see the unification of Shiite ranks even if this meant to surrender the prime minister's post. "Iran has thrown its full weight behind the line of negotiations amongst Shiite groups to ensure its influence in Iraqi politics. It sees the secular Shiite Eyad Allawi, who leads the Iraqiya, as a man who cannot be trusted due to his secular and political background. Iraqiya has a slim lead of two seats over the State of Law but Allawi was subjected to slander because Sunnis with Baathist background voted for him," Dr Ahmad Jalal Hussain, head of the Iraqi Arab Research Centre in Baghdad, has been quoted as saying. He said the situation is dangerous at the moment and it is not fair to deny Allawi his legitimate right to form a government. Dr Hussain said bending the law to allow the formation of alliances after the election as per the Supreme Court decision was a bad move now. Such alliances will have serious impact on the security of the country, he added. http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/shiites-begin-talks-to-form-iraq-coalition-government-1.605770

March 30, 2010 | 4:36 p.m. Instead of maneuvering for the upper hand, Nouri Maliki should focus on creating peace and stability for his nation. In Iraq, winning the vote and winning power are two entirely different propositions. Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqiya bloc has garnered the most seats in parliament, beating current Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's predominantly Shiite State of Law coalition. Allawi's 91 seats give him a plurality, not an outright majority, in the 325-seat parliament, but the constitution says that the top vote-getter should have the first shot at forming a government. Nevertheless, Maliki has been challenging the election results every which way, within the elastic boundaries of the law. He has tried but so far failed to secure a recount of what international observers determined to be a sufficiently fair and transparent vote. And just before the final results were released last week, the Supreme Court concluded, at Maliki's urging, that the right to form the next government could go to alliances and super-coalitions formed after the election, if they prove to have the most seats. Maliki promptly launched negotiations with other religious Shiite and Kurdish parties. Now the Accountability and Justice Commission, which already had banned scores of candidates with alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from the election, says six others slipped through the cracks, won seats and should be disqualified. Removing them would alter the outcome, because several appear to be from Allawi's Shiite-Sunni bloc (and because Allawi's coalition won by only two seats). Not incidentally, the commission's head, Ali Lami, belongs to a party that is reportedly in merger talks with Maliki. Perhaps some of this is just postelection posturing, but to us it looks like shenanigans. What's more, not only are these dubious maneuvers potentially destabilizing in such a fragile country, but they are probably unnecessary for Maliki's bloc to come out on top. Allawi, a British-trained surgeon who served as interim prime minister after the U.S.-led invasion, won the votes of many secular Shiites like himself and many more from the disaffected Sunni minority that lost power when Hussein was overthrown. But he has fewer options for forming a coalition government than does Maliki, who can reach out to other religious Shiite parties as well as to the Kurds, with whom he already is working in the current government. In our view, Maliki should ease up on the gamesmanship and focus instead on building peace and stability in Iraq. Many of the votes for Allawi were votes for a strong national government in Baghdad and against sectarianism. Whoever serves as prime minister must form an inclusive government and seek reconciliation among the ethnic and religious factions. It isn't enough just to govern Iraq. What's needed is leadership. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-iraq31-2010mar31,0,1830499.story

MARCH 30, 2010 BP PLC Tuesday awarded $500 million in contracts to drill wells in Iraq's giant Rumaila oil field, the first step in a mammoth initiative by foreign oil companies to revive the country's energy industry. If successful, the effort at Rumaila and several other fields near Basra could be one of the largest expansions of crude-oil production ever achieved anywhere. Increased Iraq production could be the difference between a well-supplied global market with oil steadily trading below today's $82 a barrel and a tight oil market with triple-digit prices, struggling to meet rising Asian demand. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303601504575154030706013588.html

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Iyad Allawi, the man who won Iraq's parliamentary elections, has accused Iran of trying to prevent him from becoming prime minister. The leader of the secular alliance that narrowly won this month's poll told the BBC that Tehran was interfering directly in Iraq's electoral process. His Iraqiyya bloc beat the rival State of Law alliance of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki by just two seats. Both the UN and US envoys to Iraq have said the 7 March poll was credible. But Mr Maliki has said he will challenge the count through the courts. Despite winning the election, Mr Allawi is a long way short of the majority he needs to form a government, says the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad. Much of his support came from Iraq's Sunni minority, our correspondent adds, but most of the parties he would need to back him represent Iraq's Shia majority, and have close ties to Iran. Difficulty governing? In an interview with the BBC, Mr Allawi said it was "very clear" that Iran was trying to stop him from becoming prime minister. Iyad Allawi, the man who won Iraq's parliamentary elections, has accused Iran of trying to prevent him from becoming prime minister. The leader of the secular alliance that narrowly won this month's poll told the BBC that Tehran was interfering directly in Iraq's electoral process. His Iraqiyya bloc beat the rival State of Law alliance of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki by just two seats. Both the UN and US envoys to Iraq have said the 7 March poll was credible. But Mr Maliki has said he will challenge the count through the courts. Despite winning the election, Mr Allawi is a long way short of the majority he needs to form a government, says the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad. Much of his support came from Iraq's Sunni minority, our correspondent adds, but most of the parties he would need to back him represent Iraq's Shia majority, and have close ties to Iran. Difficulty governing? In an interview with the BBC, Mr Allawi said it was "very clear" that Iran was trying to stop him from becoming prime minister. "Iran is interfering quite heavily and this is worrying," he said. He accused the Iranian government of interfering by inviting all the major parties to Tehran for talks, except his own Iraqiyya bloc. "They have invited everybody - but they haven't invited us - to Tehran," he said. He said he was concerned Tehran was also influencing a commission that has been vetting candidates for ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath party, which may disqualify more of his supporters. Some are likely to see Mr Allawi's comments as an excuse for the possibility he may not be able to form a government, says our correspondent. While many Shias backed him, others are suspicious of his past links to the Baath party. The Iranian embassy in Baghdad declined to comment. 'Largest bloc' According to final results published by Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), continued.............. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8595207.stm

March 30, 2010, 9:22 AM EDT March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki appealed the results of this month

Iran is losing no time in assembling a pro-Tehran government in Iraq, and in so doing Tehran may push the Sunni minority in Iraq into violent rebellion. Already, there are reports from Iraq -- from Iraqi political insiders -- that former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi who led a nationalist, anti-Iranian coalition of secular Sunni and Shiite voters, may opt to boycott the upcoming new national assembly if he isn't given the right to form a government. "We expect that there will be calls for a boycott of the parliament and for civil disobedience," according to Aiham Alsammarae, an ally of Allawi's. A violent reaction by Allawi's supporters can't be ruled out, he said, from voters who demand that Allawi be given the first crack at putting together a government. In the March 7 election, Allawi's Iraqi Nationalist Movement won 91 seats, edging out the State of Law party of Prime Minister Maliki, who won 89 seats. But top Iraqi politicians representing Shiite sectarian politicians and Kurdish separatists filed dutifully to Iran yesterday for meetings on the formation of a new Iraqi government despite Allawi's win. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, visited Tehran this weekend for meetings with President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. Talabani was accompanied by Adel Abdel Mahdi, a leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI)and Iraq's vice president, one of the leaders of the pro-Iranian Shiite religious bloc, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA). In parallel, leaders of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's State of Law party traveled to Iran to meet with Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr and Abdel Mahdi are two key members of the INA, and behind the scenes Iran is knocking heads together to make sure that Maliki, the INA, and Talabani form a ruling alliance, according to Iraqi sources interviewed from Iraq and Jordan. Their goal: to undercut former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Under Iraqi law, and according to previous procedures, Allawi would normally be asked to form a government. But Maliki finagled a court decision that, he says, allows him to form a broader coalition first and then claim the right to announce a ruling majority. According to Iraqi sources, Maliki, the INA, and Talabani -- who controls eight or nine seats within the Kurdish bloc -- agreed in Iran to form a government, which could muster about 170 seats, more than the 163 necessary in the 325-member parliament. As a result, the sources report, Masoud Barzani, the chief Kurdish leader, will also throw in with the pro-Maliki bloc. (Recently, Allawi and Barzani reportedly reached an understanding about an alliance, but even together they don't have enough votes to form a government.) Allawi and his allies, including Saleh al-Mutlaq, who was banned from running for office by the so-called de-Baathification commission, have tried to reach out to the United States for support. But Washington, whose influence in Iraq is waning rapidly, and which plans to withdraw its last remaining combat forces from Iraq by August, hasn't responded to Allawi's overtures. Needless to say, the last thing that the Obama administration needs is to become embroiled in Iraq's post-election crisis, and there's little that Washington could do, anyway, to affect the outcome. Indeed, for years now it's been clear that American influence in Iraq has been shrinking, and that Iran's clout has been increasing. But whether Washington likes it or not, Iraq may once again be pushed to the brink of civil war. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/546302/tehran_s_coup_in_iraq

March 29, 2010 -- Updated 0029 GMT (0829 HKT) Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- The top U.S. envoy to Iraq said Sunday that the results of the recent Iraqi national election mark a turning point for democracy there, but he warned that challenges remain. Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives in the March 7 elections, edging ahead of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, which received 89, according to elections officials. Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said the results suggest "there there is democracy in this country." "People have looked at different candidates, and people have gone in different directions," Hill told CNN in an exclusive interview. "And so, I think frankly, it's a good sign that Iraq could have this election." Allawi also acknowledged Sunday the significance of the results, saying Iraqis "voted against sectarianism" when they voted for his secular coalition. "They don't want to see sectarianism prevailing in this country," Allawi told CNN. "They want to have a government that can provide services, can provide security and ensure stability of the country, and improve the income of the Iraqi family." Hill pointed to the challenges Iraqi officials have had to overcome leading up to the elections -- including deadly bombings of government buildings last fall and a delay in passing a key election law. "What is important is that they've gotten this far," Hill said. "When you look at some of the problems [that] have come up in Iraq in the last six months ... a lot of people predicted the Iraqis can't get through that. Indeed they got through ... those challenges and now they have an even bigger challenge, and I would not bet against them." Hill said Allawi's biggest test will be in how he campaigns for more seats to achieve a majority in the Iraqi parliament. Hill said Allawi must be inclusive in assembling supporters and building a government. "If you're the frontrunner -- as Mr. Allawi is right now -- you've got to look out there to other coalitions (and) say how can I put together a government that's going to work?" said Hill, adding "This isn't all about ... who's a Shia or who's a Sunni; it's about who can govern better." Allawi appeared up to the challenge Sunday, saying he wants a "quick formation of a strong government" and one "that can take Iraq forward." "We fought for democracy, and we are continuing to fight for democracy," Allawi said. "That's why we are ready to talk to everyone who is ready to engage and ready to play by the roles of democracy. ... Even if they have been nasty to us and not positive in their dealing with us ... we have an open mind." http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/28/iraq.elections.ambassador/

Monday, March 29, 2010 IRAQ

Sunday March 28, 2010 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's election winner Iyad Allawi, the leader of a successful cross-sectarian coalition that wooed Shi'ites and Sunnis, also wants to court Arab neighbours and reach out to Iran. Iyad Allawi, former prime minister and head of the secular Iraqiya coalition, smiles during a media conference in Baghdad March 27, 2010. (REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen) It is far from certain he will get that chance. The secularist Allawi's loose-knit Iraqiya alliance won Iraq's March 7 parliamentary election by a whisker. The result is widely interpreted to mean Iraqis are weary of religious politics and ready to embrace a government that can supply electricity and jobs. The British-trained physician who wants to return to the prime minister's office he held in a 2004-5 transitional government won the popular vote and got two seats more than Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the new parliament. He said on Saturday that the path to a new government ran through Iraqiya. But officials with Maliki's State of Law bloc and a fellow Shi'ite coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance, say they are talking about a merger that would make anti-American Shi'ite Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army fought fiercely against U.S. troops, a power player in Iraq's new political landscape. "The government will not form (from other than) State of Law and INA because the kingmaker now is Moqtada al-Sadr," Iraqi political analyst Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie said. "Moqtada will not stand in front of the Shi'ites and Iran and tell them 'I got you a mainly Sunni government with Baathist links.'" An erstwhile member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who spent decades in exile from Saddam's Iraq, Allawi says he survived an assassination attempt by Baathist agents in 1987. But lingering doubts about his allegiances were fuelled by his election union with perceived Baathist sympathisers, including prominent Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq. Mutlaq was barred from running due to alleged Baathist ties. Allawi has said he is open to alliances with anyone. Iraqiya is talking with INA and its major component, the Sadrists, as well as the Kurds. He also said in a television interview on Saturday he is talking to some members of Maliki's party, Dawa. OBJECTIONS TO BAATHISTS "Shi'ite parties have raised objections to some of the characters in the Iraqiya list who they say are loyal to the Baath Party," Baghdad university professor Haider Hameed said. "Kurds also have objections and disagreements ... and competing parties disagree with their approach and thinking, and consider a coalition deal with Iraqiya is an impossible task." Maliki himself has indicated he would not give up his post without a fight, possibly in court. State of Law has lots of potential partners. A union with Allawi appears unlikely but Maliki may try to pick off parts of his rival's coalition. continued............ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/28/worldupdates/2010-03-28T172925Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-472761-1&sec=Worldupdates

Sunday, March 28, 2010 At least six people have been killed and 15 others wounded in an attack on a local politician in the town of Qaim, in Iraq's Anbar province, officials say. Four roadside bombs exploded in quick succession on Sunday near the house of Ghanim Radh, a member of the Development and Reforms Movement, a faction of Iyad Allawi's secular coalition. Allawi, a former prime minister of Iraq, is the leader of Iraqiya, a bloc that has emerged as the highest vote getter in the March 7 parliamentary elections. The first bomb went off at 9am local time (0600 GMT) and killed three people, drawing a crowd before the next explosion hit, Qaim's police chief said. Reuters news agency reported that Radhi and one of his brothers, who is a junior member in the Development and Reforms Movement, were killed in the attack. In Sunday's other violent incidents, three people were shot dead by unknown assailants from a car in Saadiya, a town in Diyala province, 120km northeast of Baghdad. Four other people were wounded in the shooting, according to a Diyala security official. Scattered violence In Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a government-backed patrol in the southwestern Jihad district, wounding two people, police said. In Mosul, 390km north of the Iraqi capital, clashes between police and anti-government fighters killed one civilian and wounded another in the city's west, police said. special report How the electoral system works A Sunni Muslim leader who on Friday night celebrated Allawi's win by passing out candy to well-wishers was killed by a sniper in a Baghdad neighbourhood on Saturday morning, police and hospital officials said. One of the deadliest attacks in months took place on Friday in Diyala when two bombs struck a crowded market, killing 59 people and wounding 73 more. Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, especially in Baghdad and Mosul. Sunday's attacks came just two days after Iraq's election commission announced complete results from the March 7 vote in which Allawi's Iraqiya narrowly edged out the State of Law bloc led by Nouri al-Maliki, the incumbent prime minister. Allawi's leadership bid Allawi is pressing ahead with forming a government despite protests from al-Maliki against the outcome. Iraqiya took 91 seats - two more than State of Law - in the final tally. Allawi has said he still hopes to form a government aligned with his secular principles. "I believe very strongly that unless we develop the concept of partnership in Iraq, no stability will occur," he said. "The partnership, I mean it a full partnership, there is no difference between a Kurd or an Arab, a Shia or Sunni, Muslim or non-Muslim. This is only way that we move forward." After the names of the candidates elected for the 325-seat parliament are published in daily newspapers, political blocs have three days to appeal the results. The results will not be final until certified by the supreme court.

28 March 2010 - 20H39 AFP - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose bloc came second in Iraq's general election, sharply criticised the UN envoy to Baghdad on Sunday over his inaction on vote fraud allegations. "If I were in Melkert's position and in front of this wave of problems, I would have said, 'You should go all the way through (to detect fraud),'" he said in a television interview, referring to United Nations envoy Ad Melkert. "But Melkert has said, 'Well, it is difficult because of time.'" Maliki has called for a nationwide manual recount from the March 7 polls, claiming irregularities in the counting procedure, but Melkert and Iraq's election commission have downplayed allegations of fraud. The complete results, which were released on Friday, showed Maliki's State of Law Alliance finished with 89 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives, two fewer than the Iraqiya bloc of ex-premier Iyad Allawi. "I asked the IHEC (Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission) to manually recount -- they refused, and the United Nations was more vehemently against my request than the IHEC," Maliki said. "The United Nations should have been more keen and more pushy to the IHEC to accept the request of the people" for a manual recount, he added. Shortly before the election results were released, Melkert had hailed the polls as "credible" and called on all parties to accept the outcome. "It is the UN's considered opinion that these elections have been credible and we congratulate the people of Iraq for this success," he told a news conference. continued.......... http://www.france24.com/en/20100328-iraq-pm-criticises-un-over-inaction-vote-fraud-charges

Sunday 28 March 2010 21.07 BST The first in what could be the most crucial series of discussions to form Iraq's new government took place early last week outside the country's borders in the Iranian Shia shrine city of Qom. Sitting cross-legged on the floor was a familiar firebrand in a black turban, Moqtada al-Sadr. Across from him was a delegation from the office of Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. They had come to seek a detente

Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010 BAGHDAD, Iraq_At least four Sunni Muslim candidates who appear to have won parliamentary seats on the winning ticket of secular leader Ayad Allawi have become targets of investigation by security forces reporting to the narrowly defeated Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, according to interviews Saturday with relatives, Iraqi security forces and the U.S. military. All four candidates ran in Diyala province, a restive mainly Sunni area north of Baghdad. One candidate who won more than 28,000 votes is being held incommunicado in a Baghdad jail, two other winners are on the run and the whereabouts of the fourth, a woman, are unknown. Maliki alluded to the cases in his televised refusal Friday to accept a loss in the March 7 parliamentary elections, saying of unnamed rival candidates: "What would happen if some of them are in prison now on terror accusations and they participated in the elections and might win?" Maliki's critics say the Shiite prime minister is using state security forces and the courts to remove political rivals - especially prominent Sunnis - in a last-ditch effort to disqualify candidates from Allawi's Iraqiya coalition, which holds only a two-seat lead ahead of Maliki's State of Law bloc. The government's action, coupled with appeals by Maliki's bloc for the votes to be thrown out in these cases, appeared to be a long shot maneuver to strip Allawi of his margin of victory. In the end, Iraq's high court will have to settle this and other disputes and certify the final results, a process that could take another two weeks One of the fugitive candidates said security forces had staged two raids on his home this week, including one Saturday morning. "I'm confused as to how I can make it to parliament to be sworn in when I can't even go home," said Raad Dahlaki, the chairman of the Baqouba City Council. McClatchy reached him by telephone at an undisclosed location. continued........... Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/27/91209/malikis-forces-detain-investigate.html#ixzz0jQFSQ1rm

Saturday, 27 March 2010, 03:15 EDT Al-Maliki threatens IHEC if the votes are not recounted Pentagon unpleased with al-Maliki's statement and the State of Law Alliance says UN interferes in Iraq's political process The Independent Higher Electoral Commission (IHEC) faces problems just as it announces the initial results of the Iraqi elections, and some political entities are criticizing the process of counting and sorting out the votes. According to the IHEC, the final results announced on March 26 and the complaints by the entities after results are declared will be dealt with. The State of Law Alliance, led by Premier Nuri al-Maliki, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, head of one of the main entities in the Kurdistan Alliance list, asked for a manual recount of the votes in some Iraqi governorates. The IHEC officially refused to meet such demand, and announced that it will not recount the votes once again in any part of the country. "All political entities have received the full procedure for counting and sorting out the votes via CDs. Every entity can compare its own results with the results available on the CDs. If there is a mistake, they can submit the complaint to the IHEC," said Faraj Haidari, IHEC head. Haidari also explained that the process of counting and sorting out could be repeated if there is evidence, although the IHEC unanimously refused to do this. "After the results are announced, the entities can go to the court and submit their complaints," said Sa'd al-Rawi, IHEC member, noting that recounting and sorting out the votes will not happen. Meanwhile, al-Maliki threatened the IHEC in a statement if the Commission doesn't consider his demand. "Iraq will face security destabilization if the votes are not recounted," he said. According to al-Maliki, his being the No. 1 official in the country and in charge of Iraq's political process, as well as the general commander of Iraq's military forces, justifies his making such a statement. But Al-Iraqia list (led by Iyad al-Allawi), which is the competing list to al-Maliki's State of Law Alliance, considered al-Maliki's threat a coup d'

March 27, 2010; 10:28 AM ET Hold the fireworks for Ayad Allawi, Iraq

Saturday, 27 March 2010 Negotiations begin among potential coalition partners against a backdrop of rising sectarian tensions The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was last night poised to lose power as final election tallies showed that Iyad Allawi, the secularist challenger, had won most seats in the 325- member parliament. The results released yesterday by the country's election commission showed Mr Allawi's Iraqiya group winning 91 seats, narrowly beating the alliance led by Mr Maliki into second place with 89 seats. Potential coalition partners are thought hostile to any deals that would keep Mr Maliki in power. There is no guarantee that Mr Allawi, a former prime minister, will be able to form a ruling coalition either but the extent of his success is much greater than had been expected. Violence marked the final day of election counting yesterday as two bombs in Diyala province killed 40 people and wounded more than 60. Iraq is not likely to return to the mass slaughter of recent years but the bloodshed underscored the ongoing political tensions. In Baghdad protesters supporting Mr Maliki backed his call for a recount of the 7 March poll and waved banners reading "No, no to fraud!" and "Where have our voices gone?" But the Independent High Electoral Council has denied allegations of widespread fraud and rejected demands for a manual recount. The UN's top representative in Iraq, Ad Melkert, also declared that the results were credible and urged all sides to accept them. Iraqi leaders will now play an elaborate game of political chess as they negotiate over the next four or five months on how power is to be shared and who will form the next government. The two front runners

Posted by VBN on Mar 26th, 2010 The Vietnamese dong does not appear to be a problem at its current levels, although

Sat Mar 27, 7:00 am ET BAGHDAD (Reuters)

March 27, 2010 by: admin The personality of the physical fondness which narrowly won Iraq

Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:09 p.m. Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi

Sat Mar 27, 2010 1:33 PM EDT CAIRO