Iraq’s PM to confer with Iraqiya Leader to activate Kurdish President’s Initiative, MPs say.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq ’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki is to confer in Baghdad soon with al-Iraqiya Leader, Iyad Allawi, under the patronage of Kurdistan President, Massoud Barzani, who shall propose a new initiative to settle their differences, al-Iraqiya Legislature, Othman al-Juheishy said on Monday.   “The previous Arbil Initiative by Kurdistan Region’s President, Massoud Barzani, had not achived a lot, despite fact that a long period had passed since its announcement and agreement towards it, that followed the formation of the government,” Juheishy told IraqiNews.com news agency, charging the National Coalition, led by Maliki, with having “postponed or ignored the initiative.”   Juheishy told IraqiNews.com that “al-Iraqiya had informed Barzani about necessity to achieve an active thing on the status-quo, regarding commitment to the initiative or else it shall announce its ‘death.”   Kurdistan President, Massoud Barzani, had announced an initiative on 16/9/2010 to settle the political crisis, including the formation of an 8-12 member committee, representing different political forces, to begin talks, including the settlement of the suspended differences, discuss the formation of a government of national-partnership, as well as the settlement of the issue of the three Presidencies.   “Massoud Barzani is presenting a new initiative, after calling Allawi and Maliki to meet in his Baghdad residence, in order to settle the suspended issues, related to the Arbil Agreement, including the issue of the National Council for Strategic Policies (NCSP), the security cabinet posts, national reconciliation,   balancing, judicial and administrative reforms,” Juheishy said.   He added that “things have reached complicated phases, with the exchange of an escalation of   media and political accusations between Allawi and Maliki, thing that does not serve the Iraqi people, because of the fact that any political difference shall be reflected passively on the Iraqi street.”   On his part, the Legislature of al-Iraqiya Coalition, Kadhim al-Shimmary, told IraqiNews.com that “the Maliki-Allawi meeting, under the patronage of Barzani, during the forthcoming few days, “won’t include a new initiative by the President of Kurdistan Region, because the meeting shall be centered on discussing means to activate Barzani’s previous initiative, that led to the formation of the government.”   “Maliki and Allawi must ignore their personal differences and lay the national interest above all other considerations,” Shimmari said,   “There are calls by political leaders for Barzani to interfere to hold the said meeting, in order to achieve a new understanding between al-Iraqiya and the National Coalition inside the Parliament, in which al-Iraqiya possesses 91 out of its 325 seats and the National Coalition possesses 160 seats, whilst the Kurdistan Coalition possesses 35 seats, with the fact that the last coalition remains to be the main guaranteeing power for the political process, due to the differences between the two large coalitions,” Shimmari concluded.   SKH (FT)         525