Government deal eludes Iraqi leaders as 28 killed in Shiite south

Iraq’s political leaders yesterday failed to agree on a proposed new power-sharing accord on the first day of all-party talks to break an eight-month deadlock as rival blocs stuck to their demands.

While the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders said talks are to continue in Baghdad today and tomorrow, three car bombings in Iraq’s mainly Shiite south killed at least 28 people, police and military sources said.

Shiite pilgrims from Iran were the targets in the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Yesterday’s meeting in the northern city of Arbil attended by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his chief rival, former premier Iyad Allawi, followed an agreement struck by the main Shiite bloc and a Kurdish coalition.

But their opening remarks to the three-day meeting indicated neither Maliki nor Allawi had backed down from their positions, prolonging a deadlock which has left Iraq without a government since a March 7 legislative election.

“It is necessary quickly to form a government which reflects the results of the elections,” said Mr Allawi, whose Iraqiya party narrowly won the poll and who accuses his rival of refusing to respect the results. “We must be equal in rights, duties and power-sharing, without anyone having the upper hand,” said Mr Allawi, who also accuses Mr Maliki of monopolising power and wants constitutional amendments to lessen the influence of the premier.

While Mr Allawi insisted the election results be respected, Mr Maliki in his remarks referred to respect for the Constitution, which reserves maximum rights for the premier’s post.

“Partnership must be concluded with true partners who respect the Constitution,” Mr Maliki said.

With the political deadlock unresolved, a suicide bomber in Karbala drew his booby-trapped vehicle next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, detonated his payload and killed 10 people, four of them pilgrims from Iran, police said.

An attack also targeted three buses carrying Iranian pilgrims in Najaf, another shrine city in the south where a car bombing killed eight people, all but two of them from Iran.

And a car-bomb attack in the port city of Basra killed at least 10 people and wounded 30 at a crowded market, a military officer on the scene said. Against the background of a flare-up in violence since the end of October, Iraqiya members said their Sunni-backed party was being pressed to accept the post of Parliament Speaker.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional ­president Massud Barzani had called the meeting in the Kurdish capital of Arbil.

The Kurds – kingmakers by virtue of their seats in ­Parliament – have been shrewdly trying to extract as many ­concessions as possible from both sides in return for their support.

The Kurdish coalition has thrown its backing behind Mr Maliki.