Iraqi party leaders planned delicate talks that could end Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s divisive rule after a top Shi’ite cleric called for a new premier to be chosen without delay to tackle Islamist rebels threatening to tear apart the country.
Major powers are pushing for a new inclusive government, rather than one pursuing Shi’ite sectarian domination, to be formed fast to counter the insurrection that has spilled across the border with Syria and could menace the wider Middle East.
In a striking political intervention on Friday that could signal the demise of Maliki’s eight-year tenure, influential Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani urged political blocs to agree on the next premier, parliament speaker and president before a newly elected legislature meets in Baghdad on Tuesday.
“The next 72 hours are very important to come up with an agreement…, to push the political process forward,” said a lawmaker and ex-government official from the National Alliance, which groups all Shi’ite Muslim parties.
The lawmaker, who asked for anonymity due to political sensitivities, said he expected internal meetings of the various parties and a broader session of the National Alliance including Maliki’s State of Law list to be held through the weekend. Some Sunni Muslim parties were to convene later on Saturday.
Sistani’s entry into the fray will make it hard for Maliki to stay on as caretaker leader as he has since a parliamentary election in April. That means he must either build a coalition to confirm himself in power for a third term or step aside.
Sistani’s message was delivered after a meeting of Shi’ite factions including the State of Law coalition failed to agree on a consensus candidate for prime minister.
The embattled Maliki accused his political foes of trying to prevent parliament from meeting on time and whipping up violence to interfere with the political process.
“They worked to postpone the elections… and now they are working to postpone the first session of the council of representatives… but if they are not able to pressure us to postpone, they will go for inciting security incidents in Baghdad,” he said during a televised meeting with commanders.
Since early June, ISIL militants have overrun most majority Sunni Muslim areas in the north and west of Iraq, capturing the biggest northern city Mosul and late dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.
ISIL aims to set up a medieval-style Islamic caliphate erasing regional borders and they deem all Shi’ites to be heretics deserving death. They have boasted of executing scores of Shi’ite government soldiers captured in Tikrit.
On Saturday, Iraqi troops were trying to advance on Tikrit from the direction of Samarra to the south that has become the military’s line in the sand against an ISIL charge southwards to within an hour’s drive of the capital Baghdad.
U.S. President Barack Obama has ruled out sending ground forces back to Iraq, where they were for eight years after invading to oust Saddam, but has sent up to 300 advisers, mostly special forces, to help the government take on ISIL.