BAGHDAD, Nov 7, (Agencies): Iraq’s political rivals reached a breakthrough power-sharing deal in which Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, retains the premiership, a spokesman said on Sunday, exactly eight months after inconclusive elections.
“An agreement was reached yesterday among the political parties in which Jalal Talabani will continue as head of state, Nuri al-Maliki will stay on as prime minister and Iraqiya will choose its candidate for parliament speaker,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP.
He said the deal was between the National Alliance, which represents the main Shiite parties, and the Kurdish coalition, while Iraqiya’s support hinged on its agreement over the posts of speaker and president.

“Iraqiya has not agreed for the moment over which side will have the parliament speaker’s position and which side will have the presidency,” Dabbagh added.
Former premier Iyad Allawi’s Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, which won the most seats in the March 7 election but fell short of a parliamentary majority, confirmed the deal and said discussions were continuing over those key posts.
“There is a draft agreement with the Iraqiya party, but there are still some problems to resolve,” Dabbagh said, adding that parliament would meet on Thursday to choose a speaker, the first step towards forming a new government.
The spokesman added that both Maliki and Allawi would on Monday attend a ceremony in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, to announce the agreement formally.
Dabbagh said the meeting would convene at 11:00 am (0800 GMT).
Iraqiya MP Jamal al-Butikh said earlier his bloc had agreed to the power-sharing deal after it was assured that “no political decision would be made without its agreement.”
“Iraqiya will go to Arbil under Allawi’s leadership and because the party has been given reassurance in real power-sharing,” he told AFP.

Butikh said it was unclear if the bloc would be offered the speaker’s position or the presidency, although some Iraqiya members declared a preference for the latter now held by Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Iraqiya MP Alia Nusayef said Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite leader who has 40 seats in parliament, had also been invited to the Arbil meeting “because he brings equilibrium.”
Sadr had first held discussions with Allawi, but then went into a Shiite alliance with Maliki.
Sunday’s announcement came after Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional president, Massud Barzani, said he had invited all political groups to meet on Monday in the Kurdish capital to resolve the crisis.
Earlier on Sunday in Arbil, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called for a meeting of Iraqi parties on forming a government.

“I’m in Arbil to discuss and possibly give advice to Baghdad and Arbil on the issue of forming a government, which we hope will happen soon,” he said.
Iraq’s second general election since the 2003 US-led invasion ended in deadlock after none of the main parties won enough of the 325 seats in parliament to form a majority government.
Parliament has since remained in hiatus, but on Oct 24 the supreme court ordered MPs to resume work and choose a new speaker.
Leaders of Iraq’s political blocs plan to meet Monday in an attempt to break the eight-month deadlock that has stalled formation of a new government.
If the meeting of deeply divided blocs goes forward, it could be a sign of progress toward ending the bitter political gridlock. However, it could still fall apart as so many agreements have since the March 7 election. The meeting is to take place in the northern city of Irbil.

Targeted
Meanwhile, a senior Iraqi Christian was calling on believers to quit the country, after gunmen targeted a church in Baghdad, it was reported here Sunday.
Archbishop Athanasios Dawood, who is based in the UK, was making his appeal during a service at the Syrian Orthodox Church in London, the BBC said.
The archbishop has previously criticized the lack of protection for Iraqi Christians.
At least 52 people died as security forces stormed a Catholic church in Baghdad to free dozens of hostages.
A number of gunmen entered “Our Lady of Salvation” in the city’s Karada district during Mass on Sunday, Oct 31, sparking an hours-long stand-off.
The militants made contact with the authorities by mobile phone, demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisonersas well as a number of Muslim women they insisted were being held prisoner by the Coptic Church in Egypt.

After negotiations failed, Iraqi security forces stormed the building, before the gunmen reportedly threw grenades and detonated their suicide vests.
Today, Archbishop Dawood was advising all Christians to leave Iraq now that al-Qaeda has warned of more attacks there. The archbishop was also calling on the UK government to grant Christian Iraqis asylum.
Christians - as ethnic Assyrians - have lived in Iraq since the 1st Century, but after the war, they have become isolated and the “Baghdad government has proved unwilling or unable to protect them”.
There has been a string of bomb attacks on churches leading many to flee to neighboring countries.
Church leaders have in the past advised the faithful to stay in Iraq and strengthen their communities.
But a state of insecurity is leading to signs this policy may be about to change.
The walls were still splattered with blood and pieces of flesh as Iraqi Christians celebrated Mass on Sunday in the church that just a week before had been the scene of a horrific bloodbath in which dozens died.

Parishioners holding candles and wearing black gathered in Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation church which had been stripped bare of pews and still bore bullet holes along its walls, while overhead, the chandeliers and ceilings were stained with blood.
At Mass, the congregants read verses from the Bible and laid out candles in the shape of a cross on the church floor, along with the names of those who died. At the front of the church were photos of the two priests killed in the attack.
At least one was shot execution-style on the church floor.
Catholic officials estimate that more than 1 million Christians have fled the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein, and thousands more have been killed by Sunni-led insurgents.
Immediately following the church bloodbath, France offered to grant asylum to 150 Iraqi Christians including some of the wounded. But Iraq’s top Catholic prelate, Chaldean Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, has repeatedly encouraged the country’s remaining 1.5 million Christians to remain steadfast.

Attacks
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed two Sunni anti-Qaeda militiamen and two Iraqi soldiers died in separate attacks on checkpoints north of the capital on Sunday, police said.
Police had also found a car-bomb workshop.
The bomb that killed the anti-Qaeda fighters went off near a checkpoint at Qadissiyah, close to Samarra, 110 kms (70 miles) from Baghdad, a police officer said, adding that three other militiamen were wounded.
Separately, gunmen equipped with silencers killed two soldiers in an attack on a military checkpoint in an eastern district of Mosul, police in northern Iraq’s main city said.

In Baiji, also north of Baghdad, police said they discovered a workshop for manufacturing car bombs before arresting 11 suspects, including two women, and seizing a large amount of explosives.
The find comes after al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a dozen booby-trapped vehicles that exploded simultaneously Tuesday in Shiite districts of Baghdad, killing 64 people, according to interior ministry figures.
US Brigadier General Jeffrey Buchanan said on Saturday that the anti-Shiite explosions in war-battered Iraq demonstrated that al-Qaeda remained “determined and dangerous.”
Violence has plunged since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but kidnappings and casualties from insurgent attacks remain a constant threat.