Members of Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Bloc along with supporters of the top Kurdish faction rejected the Saudi Arabian government’s offer to broker talks, insisting that the talks were unnecessary and that a government needed to be formed purely locally.
The reason behind this, however, is that the Sunni Saudi government is keen on pushing the inclusion of the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc in any government, and despite the bloc’s apparent victory in March’s election they seem destined to be in the opposition as the second place finishing Maliki bloc holds on for a second term. Iraqiya bloc members have embraced the call for talks.
But despite Maliki’s bloc seemingly being within a hair’s breadth of forming a new government several times, they have never quite managed to do so, and those in opposition to Maliki’s second term are accusing him of stonewalling the effort.
Nearly eight months now since the election, it still remains to be seen when (and even if) a new government will actually be formed, and international pressure from several nations (always on behalf of their blocs of choice) has stalled any effort to finalize any coalition.