BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki will present his cabinet Monday, an aide said Saturday, potentially bringing an end to nine months of political impasse after inconclusive March elections. The government of national unity will include members of the Iraqi parliament's four main political blocs representing Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and comes with around a year to go before US troops are to withdraw completely. The announcement came as parliament voted to overturn controversial bans placed earlier this year on three members of a Sunni-backed political bloc for their alleged ties to ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Hussain Al-Shahristani will be reappointed Iraqi oil minister. Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, also will remain at his post but a final selection of a new finance minister had not yet been made, sources close to Al-Maliki said. After months of squabbling over positions and power, the main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions reached agreement last month on dividing up the top government posts. “The prime minister has a desire to let Shahristani be deputy prime minister for power affairs but Shahristani thinks that the minister will be the owner of the final decisions in his ministry,” a source said. Shahristani's return amounts to a pledge to oil companies to honor contracts to develop Iraq's vast oil reserves. Maliki intends to name a cabinet expected to include 42 posts including three deputy prime ministers. Two of the most prominent Kurds in the government's inner circle will be familiar faces: Zebari and Deputy Prime Minister Ross Nouri Shawis. “The ministry of foreign affairs is settled for Zebari and a deputy prime minister post is settled for Ross Nouri Shawis,” said Mahmoud Othman, a senior Kurdish lawmaker. Still unsettled is the role of Iyad Allawi, the secularist Shiite former prime minister who led his cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc to 91 seats in parliament, more than any other coalition. Senior officials said Maliki's announcement Monday would not include security posts, including the interior minister, the defense minister and the national security minister. Meanwhile, Iraq's parliament took a major step toward creating a unity government, lifting a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians who were barred from running in national elections last March after being accused of having ties to Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. Parliament voted 109-61 to allow former lawmaker Saleh Al-Mutlaq and two other Sunnis to return to political jobs. Al-Mutlaq, an Al-Maliki critic and member of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya political coalition that won the most seats in the March vote, is expected to take a government post instead of rejoining the legislature.
