Kurdish lawmakers began on Saturday to plot their course as Iraq’s kingmakers with enough seats to secure a second term for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and press key demands, including a greater say over the oil riches in the country’s north.
The Kurds, who control a semi-autonomous northern enclave, emerged as the pivotal votes after al-Maliki’s Shiite-led coalition received a major boost on Friday from a powerful Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who once opposed him. The support pushed al--Maliki close to a majority grip in the 325-seat parliament, but he needs help from other factions to break a nearly seven-month impasse.
A Sunni-backed coalition led by former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi narrowly won March elections, yet without enough clout to control parliament and oust al-Maliki, leaving the country in political limbo.
Eventual Kurdish support for al-Maliki is anticipated. However, first the Kurds are expected to lobby for their long list of issues, topped by a call for a referendum to decide control of the oil-rich Kirkuk region that is now under Baghdad’s sway.
A senior Kurdish official said lawmakers from across the Kurds’ three northern provinces gathered on Saturday for a preliminary strategy session with a larger meeting planned for yesterday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief media.
Lateef Mustafa Amin, a Kurdish lawmaker, said the Kurds waited in the wings as al-Maliki and Allawi battled after the election. However, now the Kurds “see themselves as part of the solution” to settle the political bind by opening talks with al-Maliki’s bloc, he said.
The chain of events in the past days has left al-Maliki on the verge on holding onto power after the humbling election loss.
Even with Allawi’s hopes fading, his party remained defiant and said they would not join in any coalition with al-Maliki. In a statement on the party Web site, spokesman Hayder al-Mulla said a Shiite-dominated government led by al-Maliki would violate the will of the voters who seek “a genuine partnership” of Iraq’s groups.
Later, al-Maliki cast himself as the apparent victor and tried to reach out to Allawi’s bloc.
“Boycotting does not serve anyone,” he said in an interview on state-run Iraqiya television. “I ask them to return to the bargaining table.”
Yet al-Maliki will be under pressure for big concessions in exchange for the support that has put him close to his goal of staying in office. And it comes from two very different directions — the pro-Western Kurds and the staunchly anti-US al-Sadr, who once led one of the most formidable Shiite militias in Iraq.
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