As Iraqi blocs travel the region, and with Iran speaking out on coalition formation, Maliki warns neighbors not to meddle. Go to LA Times.

Iyad Allawi, Iraq’s former prime minister whose coalition narrowly won the most seats in last month’s election, will reach out to regional leaders this week by sending a delegation on a tour of the Middle East. Go to Financial Times.

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister accused neighboring states on Monday of meddling in his country’s internal affairs in efforts to influence government building after March 7 elections produced no clear winner.

Nouri al-Maliki told a government committee meeting he was upset to hear representatives of neighboring states talking on television as if they were Iraq’s “guardians.” Go to AP.

BAGHDAD — Iran, which has acted as a major power broker in Iraqi politics, called Saturday for Iraqi leaders to include Sunnis in the long-overdue new government and said Shiites would have to form an alliance with them for that to happen. Go to NY Times.

The Iranian ambassador to Baghdad said Saturday that Iraq’s new government should incorporate all political blocs, including Sunni Arabs, a shift for a country that has long advocated a government reflecting Iraq’s majority Shiite population. Go to LA Times.

…As for Iran’s bid for influence, Biden was emphatic in arguing that it had failed. He disclosed that Tehran had spent up to $100 million to back the Shiite religious parties and subvert the Iraqiya bloc, a secular Sunni-Shiite alliance headed by Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister. Bolstered by a strong Sunni turnout, Iraqiya ended up winning the largest number of seats.

“It was a real stick in the eye of the Iranians,” Biden said of Tehran’s unsuccessful campaign to steer the election outcome. What’s more, he said, Tehran’s post-election effort to pressure Iraqi leaders who visited Tehran “has turned out to backfire.” Iraqi politicians had discovered “there’s a real price to be paid . . . if it looks like you are seeking the approval or following the direction of the Iranians or any neighbor.” Go to Washington Post.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi discusses prospects for resolving the political impasse in Iraq and the threat of a new sectarian conflict. Go to CS Monitor.

BAGHDAD — Iran may seem an unlikely place to turn for guidance when it comes to putting together a democratic government, but that is exactly what most of Iraq’s political class did immediately after last month’s parliamentary elections.

The ink was hardly dry on the polling results when three of the four major political alliances rushed delegations off to Tehran. Yet none of them sent anyone to the United States Embassy here, let alone to Washington.

Nor has Washington tried to intervene. Even Ayad Allawi, the secular candidate whose Iraqiya coalition won the most seats — and renounced Iranian support in seeking a parliamentary majority — has heard nothing from the Americans.

“Maybe they don’t like my face, I don’t know,” he joked, then added more seriously, “I think they don’t want to be associated with any visit, so they wouldn’t be seen as siding with one against the other.”

The Iranians, however, have shown no such qualms, publicly urging the Shiite religious parties to bury their differences so they can use their superior numbers to choose the next prime minister. Their openness, and Washington’s reticence, is a measure of the changed political dynamic in Iraq. Even though more than 90,000 American troops remain in Iraq, no one seriously doubts they are leaving, taking a slice of America’s political influence with them…

Also:

BBC:  Moqtada Sadr holds referendum on Iraq prime minister

WP:  Iraqi government is harassing winning candidates, Sunnis say

CNN:  Iraqis begin vote on who to support for prime minister

Go to NY Times.

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) — Muqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric with a loyal following among the Shiite population in Iraq, could play a major role in the formation of a new national government.

Al-Sadr has refused to back the top vote-getters in the March 7 election and is asking his followers to designate a prime minister of their choosing in a referendum this weekend.

This is the latest political jockeying in the aftermath of the election for the 325-member parliament.

Go to CNN.

Free Iran:  It’s amazing the extraordinary money the US is spending on the periphery issues, Iraq & Afghanistan, and how little on the main the issue – Iran.  Again, it’s the cart-before-the-horse problem.

	The New York Times

…In trying to speed 30,000 reinforcements into Afghanistan while reducing American forces in Iraq by 50,000, American commanders are orchestrating one of the largest movements of troops and matériel since World War II. Military officials say that transporting so many people and billions of dollars’ worth of equipment, weapons, housing, fuel and food in and out of both countries between now and an August deadline is as critical and difficult as what is occurring on the battlefield.

…The military says there are 3.1 million pieces of equipment in Iraq, from tanks to coffee makers, two-thirds of which are to leave the country. Of that, about half will go on to Afghanistan, where there are already severe strains on the system.

Overcrowding at Bagram Air Base, the military’s main flight hub in Afghanistan, is so severe that beds are at a premium and troops are jammed into tents alongside runways. Cargo planes, bombers, jet fighters, helicopters and drones are stacked up in the skies, waiting to land.

All lethal supplies — weapons, armored trucks, eight-wheeled Stryker troop carriers — come in by air to avoid attacks, but everything else goes by sea and land. The standard route from Iraq to Afghanistan is south from Baghdad and down through Kuwait, by ship through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to Karachi, Pakistan, then overland once again. The “fob in a box” went on an experimental and potentially less expensive journey through Turkey to link up with a new northern route through Central Asia, which was opened last year for supplies going to Afghanistan from Europe and the United States as an alternative to the risky trip through Pakistan.

Both routes circle Iran, by far the most direct way to get from Baghdad to Kabul, but off limits because of the country’s hostile relationship with the United States. “These are the cards that we’re dealt,” said Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, who oversees all military logistics as the leader of the United States Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

…Food shipments alone are enough to feed an army. The Defense Logistics Agency, which provides meals for 415,000 troops, contractors and American civilians each day in both wars, shipped 1.1 million frozen hamburger patties to Afghanistan in March alone, compared with 663,000 burgers in March 2009. The agency also supplied 27 million gallons of fuel to forces in Afghanistan this month, compared with 15 million gallons a year ago.

Go to NY Times.

Iran is trying to put together a new coalition government in neighbouring Iraq from Shia parties even though they lost last month’s general election.

If successful it would mean the current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki may end up heading a new government despite having polled second, which would alienate Iraq’s Sunni minority and threaten a return to violence.

Representatives from his State of Law party, along with the two main factions of the third-placed Iraqi National Alliance, have travelled to Iran in recent days to conduct coalition negotiations. Free Iran:  How’s that Iraqi invasion working out for you (those who supported this awful war)?  This terrible turn of events comes on top of what’s taking place in Afghanistan.  Tom Friedman wrote in today’s NY Times:  “This newspaper carried a very troubling article on the front page on Monday. It detailed how President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan had invited Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Kabul — in order to stick a thumb in the eye of the Obama administration — after the White House had rescinded an invitation to Mr. Karzai to come to Washington because the Afghan president had gutted an independent panel that had discovered widespread fraud in his re-election last year.“   At the expense of boring the regular readers of this site, I repeat one of the pillars of this site:  that the US policy in the Middle East is a cart-before-the-horse policy.  First, help Iran become democratic, then watch the other countries follow suite.  As goes Iran, so goes the Middle East.  The other way around is virtually impossible.

Go to Telegraph.

Former Iraqi premier Ayad Allawi accused neighbouring Iran on Tuesday of seeking to prevent him becoming prime minister again, after his bloc emerged strongest from national elections.

Tehran was interfering in the election process in Iraq, where his Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives, two more than Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance, he told the BBC.

“Iran is interfering quite heavily and this is worrying,” Mr Allawi told the broadcaster, accusing the Islamic republic of inviting all the major parties to Tehran apart from his bloc.

“They have invited everybody – but they haven’t invited us – to Tehran,” he said. Free Iran:  As we have always stated, America has put the cart before the horse when it comes to the Middle East.  First help Iran become democratic, then watch the rest of the region follow suit.  It’s virtually impossible to do it the other way around.

Asked directly whether Iran wanted to stop him becoming prime minister, Mr Allawi responded: “I think so, they made it very clear … that they have a red line.

“We are concerned about respecting the will of the Iraqi people.”

Neither Iraqiya nor State of Law clinched an overall parliamentary majority and a protracted period of coalition building, which could take months, is now expected.

Senior figures from State of Law and other major Iraqi parties have visited Tehran since the March 7 parliamentary election – but no official from Iraqiya is known to have travelled to the Iranian capital.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who heads one of the autonomous Kurdish region’s two long-dominant blocs, and Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, a member of the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), both visited Tehran over the weekend to mark Nowrouz, the Iranian and Kurdish New Year.

The INA is a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, including the movement loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Since Talabani and Abdel Mahdi’s visit, senior officials from Maliki’s State of Law, the Sadrist movement, and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, a Shiite religious group that is also part of the INA, have visited the Iranian capital.

See Also:

WSJ:  Allawi Accuses Tehran of Meddling in Iraqi Politics

FP:  Iraq’s Election Was Free and Fair

Go to Telegraph.

The leader of the secular alliance that narrowly won Iraq’s parliamentary election has offered to work with all parties to form a coalition government.

Iyad Allawi said his Iraqiya bloc would start by talking with the rival State of Law alliance of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, which it beat by two seats.

Mr Maliki has refused to accept the result and said he would challenge the count through the courts.

Both the UN and US envoys to Iraq have said the 7 March poll was credible.

Iyad Allawi has clearly surprised many with such a forceful comeback. Iraqiya did not win by a big margin, but given the complex and fragmented nature of Iraqi politics, its small victory is still a considerable achievement – if it is not overturned by the courts as his rivals want.

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Much will now depend on how he navigates through many of the domestic and regional minefields ahead. The words he spoke struck all the right notes – inclusive and conciliatory towards his enemies both at home and abroad. Knowing that his comeback will not be welcome in Iran, Mr Allawi must have had them in mind when he said stability in the Middle East was the responsibility of all its peoples, and not just the Americans. The US cannot stay here for ever to protect us, he warned.

If the transfer of power is completed peacefully, and Mr Allawi manages to reconcile the many competing interests, then some will conclude that Iraq’s fledgling democracy appears to be coming of age.

Iyad Allawi wins most seats in Iraq, but long wrangling will decide who rules.

WITH the count complete, Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi National Movement, known as Iraqiya, narrowly won Iraq’s general election according to results released on Friday March 26th. Mr Allawi’s alliance is ahead by a margin of two seats, giving him the first chance to try to form a coalition government, but it is far from clear whether he will be able to get to a position to head the next government in Iraq.

The State of Law alliance which is led by the current prime minsiter, Nuri al-Maliki, came a close second. In third place is a Shia religious alliance that includes followers of a populist cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, with a strong showing in the eastern slums of Baghdad and in three southern provinces. A Kurdish alliance, the fourth main block, swept the Kurds’ three provinces in the north.

Also see:

CS Monitor:  Challenger Allawi edges PM Maliki in Iraq election

WSJ:  Allawi Bloc Wins Iraq Elections, in Upset

Time:  In Iraq, a Former U.S. Frontman Wins — But Will He Rule?

Go to Economist.

BAGHDAD — The man who was widely derided as an American puppet when he stepped down as prime minister five years ago has become a leading contender for Iraq’s top job based on his strong showing in this month’s elections among a group that lost more than any other with the U.S.-led invasion.

Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite known for his willingness to use brute force when necessary, has returned to the center of Iraqi politics after receiving millions of votes from Sunni Arabs, a minority that has felt marginalized since Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. Political blocs led by Allawi and Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are neck-and-neck in a race that is still too close to call with 95 percent of ballots counted. Remaining results are expected to be released Friday.

Allawi and his political coalition won Sunni support in part because he is considered less sectarian than other Shiite leaders and was not in office during the vicious sectarian bloodletting that marked the first two years of Maliki’s tenure. With the U.S. military preparing to substantially draw down its presence this summer, many Sunnis voted with the hope that Allawi would restore some of their lost status. Go to Washington Post.