Iraq urged to end political impasse

The interior ministers of the countries neighboring Iraq have convened in the Bahraini capital, calling on Baghdad to immediately form a government.

“The formation of a government representing the different components of Iraqi society is an internal issue to be decided by Iraqi political forces,” the ministers said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

But the quick formation of a government is “a national, regional and international need,” the statement further urged.

The Manama summit on Iraq also decided to set up a team of experts to review security cooperation among the Middle East states and “exchange information on terrorist activities threatening Iraq and neighboring countries.”

The interior ministers of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain were present at the meeting — the seventh of its kind since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The latest ministerial meeting comes as Iraq’s major political parties are yet to agree on the formation of a ruling coalition more than six months after Iraq’s inconclusive parliamentary polls on May 7.

Tainted with allegations of fraud, the result of the elections was that former premier Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya bloc assumed the highest number of seats, 91, in the country’s 325-seat parliament.

Incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shia-majority State of Law coalition took second rank, with 89 seats followed by the Iraqi National Alliance which secured 70 seats.

Amid efforts by the key players to form an alliance for a parliamentary majority, experts see al-Iraqiya less likely to attract other states as it is widely associated with Western powers, Sunni-dominated Arab states and the outlawed Ba’ath party.

Meanwhile, attacks and militancy have increased in the war-torn country following the general polls, with almost daily bombings brushing away the prospects of peace in the near future.