Iraq still has long political road ahead

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Though Baghdad formally ended a record-breaking political stalemate this month, key legislative issues are likely to linger, an analyst said.

Iraqi lawmakers announced last week that they approved a partial Cabinet headed by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, ending a record-breaking political deadlock that followed inconclusive March elections.

The new Iraqi government agreed to create a new National Council for Strategic Policies. Iyad Allawi, a former interim prime minister and leader of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya slate, was mentioned as a possible leader of the new strategic council. Iraqiya won March parliamentary elections but failed to get enough support to form a governing coalition.

Joost Hiltermann, an Iraq expert at the International Crisis Group, in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations agreed that Allawi would head the council if it were formed to suit his agenda.

Iraqi observers, he said, first have to see whether the notoriously slow Iraqi Parliament can agree on the shape of the new council "and then whether Allawi feels that it satisfies his earlier demands for having a real check against Maliki's power as prime minister."

The strategic council as proposed by lawmakers this week would enjoy many of the same rights as the prime minister.