VP Abdulmahdi arrives in Arbil to meet Barazani

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdulmahdi arrived in the Kurdish city of Arbil on Friday for talks with Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani on the government formation crisis, according to an informed source in the Region’s presidential cabinet. “Barazani and Abdulmahdi, who is also a leading figure in the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), are expected to discuss developments in Iraq and means to activate Barazani’s initiative to accelerate the formation of a new Iraqi government,” the source said. Barazani had offered on Sept. 16 an initiative envisaging the formation of a commission composed of eight to 12 members representing all political blocs to negotiate means to settle outstanding issues and form a national partnership government as well as agree on plenary meetings by Iraqi leaders to settle the issue of the three top posts in the state – the president, prime minister and parliament speaker. Iraq’s political arena is witnessing incessant differences since the announcement of the March 7 legislative elections, in which former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya garnered 91 seats, followed by its archrival incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) with 89 seats. The State of Law clenched an alliance with other blocs, notably the al-Ahrar (Liberals) bloc of the Sadrist Movement, which won 40 seats, so as to make the largest parliamentary bloc. The move is vehemently objected by al-Iraqiya on the grounds that it had won the largest number of seats in the parliamentary elections and accordingly entitled to form a government. AmR (S) 1