Iraq’s Presidency postpones meeting of Political Leader for Tuesday, in response to al-Iraqiya demand

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The meeting of the Leaders of Political Blocs, scheduled to convene today (Monday), has been postponed for Tuesday, according to a request by al-Iraqiya Coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, an Iraqi Presidency statement reported.   “In response to a request by al-Iraqiya Coalition’s Leadership, it is decided to postpone the meeting of the Political Leaderships till Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011,” an Iraqi Presidency statement, copy of which was received by IraqiNews.com news agency, stressed.   The meeting, the second, called for by Iraq ’s President, Jalal Talabani, was scheduled to be held on Saturday, but it was postponed for Monday, due to the death of the Mother of Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s President, Massoud Barzani, the guardian of the so-called Arbil Initiative, that called for the formation of the government of national-partnership.   Noteworthy is that al-Iraqiya Coalition had threatened in mid June to withdraw trust from the government and to call for early elections, in the event of non-achievement of the said national-partnership, whilst analysts believer that it took that position due non-achievement of any progress in the joint negotiations   over the past few days, before the scheduled meeting day of the Political Leaders.   The meeting, called by President Jalal Talabani, was supposed to complete the current talks to settle the differences between the State of Law Coalition, led by Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and al-Iraqiya Coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, about the latter’s proposed National Council for Strategic Policies (NCSP) and the Cabinet’s security ministries, along with the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Iraq, along with the trimming of the Cabinet.   SKH (RT)