Ayad Allawi, the former Prime Minister of Iraq and current leader of the nation’s largest political faction, Iraqiya, announced today that he will not accept the position of chairman of the National Council on Strategic Policies, the position he was promised under a “power-sharing” deal with the other major factions.
Allawi complained in an interview today about the Maliki government’s lack of movement on the “partnership agreement,” and pointed out that he can’t be the chairman, a position which was invented entirely to give the illusion his Sunni dominated bloc had a role in the government, of a council which still doesn’t exist.
There was considerable annoyance amongst Iraqiya members at the time the deal was announced because the council didn’t exist, had no legal mandate to do anything, and the position of chairman was completely undefined.
Allawi insisted that his Iraqiya bloc was free to choose someone else for the role, but this may ultimately not be the case, as members of Iraqiya appear to be more interested in organizing around the role of a pro-protester opposition bloc than as a minor partner to the Maliki regime.
