Eyad Allawi gets Shiite party boost

Baghdad: A leading Shiite party said yesterday it will not join any Iraqi government without Eyad Allawi, a move that could boost the chances of the election winner of becoming a prime minister.

Ammar Al Hakim, head of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), said his party, with strong ties to Iran, was open to an alliance with Allawi's cross-sectarian Iraqiya list.

The close election results have promised weeks or months of difficult and potentially divisive talks to form a government. Iraqis had hoped the vote would stabilise the country after years of war.

ISCI is part of the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), which finished third in the March 7 parliamentary election. Anti-US cleric Moqtada Al Sadr heads INA's other major faction.

"Putting pressure on Iraqiya is putting pressure on a major part of our [Iraqi] people. We will not take part in any upcoming government without the Iraqiya slate being there," Al Hakim said in remarks made late on Wednesday and broadcast yesterday on ISCI's television station.

Iraqiya finished first with 91 seats and the State of Law coalition of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki trailed with 89.

Al Maliki's coalition is locked in merger talks with Al Sadr's faction.

A deal could lead to the combined group forming the largest bloc in parliament and sidelining Allawi.

Hakim rejected allegations that Allawi, a secular Shiite who was prime minister in 2004-2005, had ties to former members of ousted dictator Saddam Hussain's outlawed Baath Party. "I can't guarantee all the winning candidates for Iraqiya, but I can confirm that Iraqiya as a slate is not Baathist," Al Hakim said.

On Tuesday, Allawi complained that Tehran was "interfering" in the political process to try to block his path by holding talks with all of Iraq's major political groups except his secular Iraqiya bloc.

"Iran is interfering quite heavily and this is worrying," he told the BBC in an interview. Asked whether the Islamic republic wanted to stop him from becoming prime minister, he replied: "I think so. They made it very clear ... that they have a red line."

Senior figures from Al Maliki's State of Law Alliance and other major Iraqi blocs have visited the Iranian capital since the polls, but no official from Iraqiya is known to have travelled to Tehran.

But, Iran denied it was meddling in Iraqi politics although Tehran stood ready to help. Efforts by Iraqi parties "to form the next government are an internal matter, and they will obviously do that according to their electoral plans and without taking into account foreign interests," its foreign ministry said.

"Iran does not interfere in this," its foreign ministry spokesman told state radio, while adding Tehran was ready to "host Iraqi political movements to help with the formation of the new government as soon as possible."