PROGRESS IN IRAQ

IN Baghdad, late on Friday night, Iraqi politicians reached an agreement on a coalition that might bring to an end the stalement over government that has remained unresolved since elections in early March. In a surprise move the self-exiled cleric Moktada al-Sadr sent a message of support from Tehran to the incumbent prime minister Nuri al-Maliki. The votes of Sadrist delegates in the Parliament will not give Maliki an overall majority but will probably provide a strong base from which to attract Kurdish representatives and other small parties.

Any satisfaction felt in the US Embassy in Baghdad at this development will be tempered by the knowledge that for many years after the US invasion Moktada al-Sadr's private Shiite army fought against US forces in Baghdad and Basra and that al-Sadr, who is based in Iran, still regards American forces in Iraq as “foreign occupiers”. The coalition, if confirmed in office, will also leave the moderate Ayad Allawi, who won one more vote than al-Maliki in the March election, and his Sunni supporters somewhat isolated. It may take several weeks of negotiation over detail before the new alliance led by al-Maliki can go confidently to the Parliament to seek a confirmatory vote. Seven years after the UK/US invasion of Iraq its politics are still not settled and the deadline for the removal of the last 50'000 US troops is still more than a year away.