Trying to help Iraq manage the ongoing post-election chaos, UN Special Envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert met with important cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and plans more meetings with potential factions that could be involved in forming a new government.
Hennis-Plasschaert is not expected to be well received by the Shi’ite militia faction Fatah, as she praised the elections for transparency, and Fatah insists the whole vote was a sham. They have accused her of “meddling” in internal Iraqi affairs.
These sort of meetings after elections trying to push for the parties to work together on some sort of consensus is not uncommon in Iraq, where since the 2003 US invasion and occupation, a lot of votes ended very inconclusively.
This latest vote was no different. Sadr’s party won the plurality, but a campaign calling for major reforms and anti-corruption measures has left that party with few natural allies for forming a majority government.
It isn’t impossible that the deal could still happen, but right now it isn’t clear what concessions would be needed. That’s seemed so unlikely that some have openly talked of trying to establish a provisional government since they don’t see anyone forming a real government.
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