Maliki also now appears likely to receive the backing of neighboring Iran, a Shiite nation with close ties to the prime minister's Shiite opponents, Shabandar said. Iran, loathed by Iraq's Sunni Arabs, had opposed Maliki's earlier efforts to break away from the other Shiite religious parties, but it sees him as a lesser evil than Allawi, Shabandar said.
Maliki appears to have no qualms about crafting a less inclusive governing coalition than in 2006, when Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds were all awarded ministries under the supervision of the U.S. Even hopes for a variety of Kurdish voices in Baghdad has diminished, as a rival Kurdish faction, called Change, fared poorly against the main Kurdish bloc for seats in parliament.
