Reuters reports:

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Saturday that he hoped a draft constitution would be ready on Sunday. "If God is willing, tomorrow it will be ready," Talabani told a news conference.

Talabani said two key issues were still under discussion. "There are no obstacles but discussions on federalism in the south and the relation between religion and state," he said. Talabani said no issues would be postponed until later this year in order for the panel drafting the constitution to reach a self-imposed August 15 deadline for presenting the charter to parliament. Lawmakers have sent mixed signals on the talks on Saturday, with some saying they are close to clinching a deal and others pessimistic.

Blog closing down

A word from your editor:

This will be the last post on this blog. It was been a fantastic experience for me. I'm afraid that other projects are largely demanding my attention, and Iraqi politics seems to be coming along quite well.

Thanks to all my readers for their support.

Christian Science Monitor: Thorny issues loom for Iraq leaders. Breaking the deadlock over forming Iraq's interim government came down, in the end, to a simple compromise: Kurds dropped their immediate demand that the oil-rich city of Kirkuk be added to their autonomous section of Iraq, and Shiite Arabs said they wouldn't insist on dismantling the Kurds' peshmerga militia. The country's two main political powers have essentially deferred these and other difficult issues until a time when Iraq's politics may be calmer and the two sides may be closer. It's a position that many observers expected to have been reached within weeks of the election. But this was a compromise between radically different factions in a country where threats and the gun have long stood in for dialogue.

The Daily Times [Pakistan] editorial: Iraq has done well. The impasse that had gripped the Iraqi parliament on the issue of the presidency has been resolved. The new Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, is a Kurd, the first to become modern Iraq’s leader. Also, the first non-Arab leader of an Arab state. The two vice-presidents represent the other two sectarian factions in the country. Adel Abdul Mahdi, finance minister in the outgoing interim government, is Shia while Ghazi Yawar, a former president, is a Sunni tribal leader. As the parliament’s new speaker-elect, Hajem Al Hassani said after the vote: “This is the new Iraq — an Iraq that elects a Kurd to be president and an Arab former president as his deputy. What more could the world want from us?”[...]

Iraq is a step closer to its first democratically elected government in more than 50 years, after Ibrahim Jaafari was named as the country's prime minister. Mr Jaafari is a softly spoken doctor who fled into exile under Saddam Hussein and who leads Iraq's oldest Islamic party. He acknowledged that ruling Iraq would be a huge responsibility.

AP update:

Summary: What's Next for Iraqi Government. CHOOSING A CABINET... DRAFTING A CONSTITUTION... REFERENDUM ON NEW CONSTITUTION... NEXT ELECTIONS...

Saddam's Old Foes Become New Iraqi Leaders. Cementing Iraq's first democratic government in 50 years, one of Saddam Hussein's most implacable enemies took his oath as president Thursday and quickly named another longtime foe of the ousted dictator to the powerful post of prime minister. The new government's main task will be to draft a permanent constitution and lay the groundwork for elections in December, although some worry that the two months of political wrangling taken up in forming the leadership hasn't left enough time. The swearing-in ceremony came just two days short of the second anniversary of Baghdad's fall to U.S.-led forces and underlined the growing power and cooperation of the Shiite Arab majority and Kurdish minority - groups that were long oppressed by Saddam's regime. There were stumbles, though. [...]

New Iraqi PM Long Opposed Saddam's Reign. Ibrahim al-Jaafari spent more than two decades as an exile trying to topple Saddam Hussein's government - with the close support of Iran and an Islamic militant group linked to terrorism. Now, as Iraq's new interim prime minister, he has asserted he is a moderate, even as some have questioned his ties to Iran and his work for Iraq's first Shiite Islamic political party - the Islamic Dawa Party - of which he is spokesman. Although al-Jaafari served in Dawa leadership positions, he has distanced himself from the group's attacks. But his history with the group - he first joined in 1968 - still raises eyebrows.

BBC News: Talabani election pleases press. Jalal Talabani's election as Iraq's new president inspires cautious optimism in the comment pages of Thursday's papers in Baghdad and elsewhere in the region. Many see the choice of Mr Talabani as an opportunity for Iraqis to cast long-standing ethnic differences aside. Turkish papers are also generally buoyed by the news, predicting that he could dampen Kurdish hopes of their own independent state.

Iraq's new parliament is due to select its three-man presidency council, which will in turn appoint a prime minister. Senior government sources said on Tuesday Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani would be nominated as president. Outgoing President Ghazi Yawer, a Sunni Arab, would be one vice-president and current Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shia, the other, sources said. [...] (BBC News)

Iraq's divided interim parliament has finally elected a speaker, clearing a major political hurdle on the way to forming a government. Casting secret ballots, the members chose Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, as the speaker and picked a Shia Muslim and a Kurd as his deputies. More than two months have passed since Iraqis elected the national assembly. A session of the chamber fell apart on Tuesday as members argued over a suitable Sunni candidate. [...] (BBC News)

The Iraqi National Assembly failed to choose a speaker Tuesday after arguments broke out among lawmakers and reporters were ordered to leave the session. Assembly members expressed outrage that no agreement had been reached after two sessions. "The Iraqi people who defied the security threats and voted -- what shall we tell them? What is the reason for this delay?" politician Hussein al-Sadr told Reuters. Al-Sadr is a member of the coalition led by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Eventually, the assembly's acting speaker ordered reporters out of the session and cut off a video feed from the proceedings. Members then huddled in a closed-door meeting. (CNN)

Shiite and Kurdish figures warned Thursday that talks on forming Iraq's next government could drag on another week, while Iraqi forces battled insurgents in their former stronghold of Fallujah. Hopes of clinching a government nearly two months after Iraq's epic election were dented as the election-winning Shiite political list pushed to reconvene the 275-member Parliament Saturday without consensus on a Cabinet. "Even if the Parliament convenes Saturday or Sunday, it may take another week to have a government," said Haidar al-Mussawi, a spokesman for Ahmed Chalabi, a leading member of the Shiite list, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). A Kurdish source said the delay stemmed in part from efforts to convince outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's list to join the government. (The Daily Star [Lebanon])

Ross Mackenzie: In Iraq, extraordinarily, the biggest change since Babylon. Perhaps four words - resolve, courage, sacrifice and extraordinary - best define the outcome of the elections in Iraq. The resolve of President Bush and the people of the United States, the courage and sacrifice of primarily the American military and the Iraqi people (as well as the post-Saddam Iraqi leadership), and the extraordinary electoral results. In the run-up to the election, many among the doubters and naysayers practically cheered for failure. They were all negativism, cynicism and gloom. Remember? From all the predictable sectors - the Old Media (which somewhere along the way redefined the terrorists as "insurgents"), Old Europe, even non-Iraqis Osama and Zarqawi) the unrelenting cries went up: [...] (townhall.com)

Scott Ritter: Hijacking Democracy in Iraq. The post-election ‘cooking’ of the results in Iraq all but guarantees that the Shi’a of Iraq will rally together to secure that which they believe is rightfully theirs. This journey of ‘historical self-realization’ may very well ignite the kind of violent backlash among the Shi’a majority in Iraq that the U.S. has avoided to date. It could also complicate whatever strategies the Bush administration may be trying to implement regarding Iraq’s neighbor to the east, Iran. But in any case, the American ‘cooking’ of the Iraqi election is, in the end, a defeat for democracy and the potential of democracy to effect real and meaningful change in the Middle East. The sad fact is that it is not so much that the people of the Middle East are incapable of democracy, but rather the United States is incapable of allowing genuine democracy to exist in the Middle East. (Guerrilla News Network)

The United Shiite Alliance, victorious in the Iraqi elections held on January 30, and the representatives of the Kurdish parties have begun to share the main ministries. (Zaman Online [Turkey])

Iraq’s parliament will convene by Saturday to elect a speaker and try to reach agreement on a government to end a political crisis in the country, politicians said. The assembly’s first working session will be held at the weekend after the Shiite and Kurdish blocs, who between them have the two-thirds majority needed to form a government, sign a declaration on the status of the oil city of Kirkuk and the role of Islam, they said. (Reuters via MSNBC)

Political poker in Baghdad. “The talks are being carried out smoothly and in some positive climate”, said Kurdish negotiator Kamal Fuad, noting that the Kurds and the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) were also meeting outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. But no politician wanted to predict when Iraq’s mosaic of Shiites, Kurds, Sunnites, Christians and Turkmens would unveil their government and the parliament would reconvene. The Shiite candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, told reporters it could take as long as two weeks A Shiite negotiator and senior member of Jaafari’s Dawa Party was optimistic that a deal could be struck by the end of the month. (Monday Morning)

The spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiites urged political parties to speed up lagging talks to form a government, as US forces and rebels squared off in their biggest battle since the January 30 elections. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, quoted by a top Shiite politician, said Monday the slowness of Shiites and Kurds in completing talks to form a government over one-and-a-half months after their triumphs in the vote was affecting Iraqis’ lives. (Khaleej Times [UAE])

Jordan announced its top diplomat would return to Iraq only days after the neighboring countries withdrew their highest envoys amid heightened tensions and the US military reported yesterday that a Marine was killed in action in a strife-riven western province. (AP via Taipei Times [Taiwan])

Iraq's Shiite and Kurdish powerbrokers woo Allawi. Shiite and Kurdish leaders said that Iraq's next government could be formed within a week as they courted Sunnis and outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi to join a coalition. (AFP via TurkishPress.com)

Shiite and Kurdish officials reported progress Thursday in resolving disagreements over territorial issues and cabinet posts, but said they may need another week to put together Iraq's coalition government. Nearly two months after they braved death to vote, many Iraqis are growing frustrated over the slow pace of the talks. "These negotiations included many things, not just the Kurdish issues, but also regarding the shape of the Iraqi government," said interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd. (AP via canada.com)

Mohammed A. R. Galadari: Iraq shows the way for region. The process has begun for the formation of a coalition government for Iraq, as per the agreement announced between the winning sides yesterday. See, dear readers, how things are progressing and how proper were the elections there. The prime minister and the president of the caretaker government that oversaw the election process-Iraq’s first tryst with democracy in several decades-are not the ones who tasted victory. Both Iyad Allawi and Ghazi Al Yawar have less reason to be cheerful, as they are not the major winners. New alignments and new leaders are in the making to lead Iraq. This shows impatience will not work in a democratic set up. Those who showed patience and wholeheartedly participated in the election are getting an opportunity to share power and lead the people. Those who boycotted the elections have lost out; at least for now. It might be that, by good sense, the winning side would involve them too in the governance. That’s how a nation can stand united and reconstruction made easy. (Khaleej Times)