BAGHDAD: Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki appealed to the country's warring political factions for unity Thursday after formally accepting a request by the president to form the next government, part of a deal to end an eight-month deadlock over who would lead the country for the next four years. The long-awaited request from President Jalal Talabani sets in motion a 30-day timeline to accomplish the daunting task of finding a team that includes all of Iraq's rival factions and that will oversee the country during the departure of American troops. “I know and you know well that the responsibility I am undertaking is not an easy task, especially in the current circumstances that our country is passing through,” Al-Maliki said. The new government is expected to include all the major factions, including the Kurds, Shiite political parties aligned with Iran, and a Sunni-backed bloc that believes it should have been the one leading the next government. Many of the politicians were in the room with Al-Maliki and Talabani when the announcement was made in a show of unity that belies the country's often divisive politics. Al-Maliki, a contentious figure in Iraqi politics who rose from obscurity to lead the government in 2006, called upon Iraqis and fellow politicians – many who view him with distrust and animosity – to support him in the task ahead. “I call upon the great Iraqi people in all its sects, religions and ethnicities and I call upon my brothers the politicians to work to overcome all differences and to put these differences behind us,” said the prime minister designate. Al-Maliki will have to find substantial roles for all of those factions or risk having them leave his government, a possibly destabilizing blow for Iraq's still fragile democracy that is struggling to overcome years of violence and economic sanctions.
