• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Iraqi political leaders reach agreement on top gov't posts

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Baghdad, Nov 11, IRNA -- The Iraqi political leaders finally reached an agreement Wednesday evening on top posts for new government after an eight-month deadlock.

Informed sources reported late Wednesday evening that the Iraqi political leaders agreed to leave the post of prime minister to Nuri al-Maliki and that of president to Jalal Talabani while former premier Iyad Allawi's political party would get the speaker’s post in the National Assembly. Allawi's block would also head a new council of strategic policy, they added.

The Iraqi leaders also agreed to hold the first official session of the Iraqi Parliament on Thursday to elect a new speaker. The speaker’s two deputies as well as the president and his two VPs will be elected on the basis of the country’s constitution by the parliament deputies today.

The Iraqi political leaders reached the consensus after the three-day round table discussion hosted by the Kurdish regional chief, Masoud Barzani.

The first session of the talks was held in Erbil on Monday attended by all Iraqi political leaders and afterwards the next sessions were held in Baghdad.

It is not yet clear that which one of the leading members of the al-Iraqiya faction will be elected for the post of parliament speaker but the Iraqi news sources believe that the present vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi and the leading member of al-Iraqiya faction Osama al-Nujaifi are the two main nominees for the post.

It is also not clear that the post of chairmanship of the council of strategic policy will be left to al-Allawi himself or not.

While the Parliament session was previously set to be held at 11 am local time on Thursday, it was further announced that the session would be held in the afternoon.

If the reached agreements are materialized, the new Iraqi government would be established within one month so that it would end the months-long power vacuum in that country.

1422**1432
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30069379