Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki remains stubborn about holding his premiership, but he may not have a choice in the matter as growing numbers of Shi’ite MPs, including members of his own State of Law Party, are drawing up plans for a post-Maliki distribution of power.
Parliament will be reconvening next week, likely on Tuesday, and will be choosing a new parliamentary speaker, setting in motion the election of a new president and eventually a new premier.
Sunnis and Kurds have opposed a third term for Maliki, and most foreign powers have also come out against him since the recent ISIS gains across western Iraq, believing a less contentious figure would be more able to secure Kurdish and Sunni Arab support for fighting ISIS.
Maliki, for his part, maintains that he is the only person strong enough to defeat ISIS, and has spun calls for unity by top figures as calls to unite behind him personally, and his continued rule.
Whatever the Parliament is "planning" on doing, it's going to take too long. If they were smart, they'd arrest Maliki now, take him out, stand him against the wall and retire him…because given time he will do whatever he must to keep his power…and his life. They are not going to allow him to live comfortably in some palace in Baghdad while the city/country tries to survive and recover. He knows that. His options are severely limited. And desperate men of power do desperate things to stay in power. At this point I'm sure he shouldn't even count on his personal body protection team, especially if Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani has indicated that Maliki should retire.