Iraqi parliament to meet in step to form new govt

Source: AP-Excite

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN and DIAA HADID

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's vice president called on parliament Thursday to convene next week, taking the first step toward forming a new government to present a united front against a rapidly advancing Sunni insurgency that threatens to spread across the region.

Britain's top diplomat, visiting Iraq, urged its leaders to put aside their differences for the good of the nation. And in Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry met with the United States' top Sunni state allies in the Mideast to consider how to confront the growing turmoil.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led political bloc won the most seats in April 30 elections — with 92 seats out of the 328 — but he needs support from other parties for a majority that would give him the right to govern. An increasing number of critics, both in Iraq and abroad, now want him to step down, saying his failure to promote national reconciliation fueled the insurgency by needlessly angering minority Sunnis.

Compounding the pressure on al-Maliki, Iraq's powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr made a televised statement late Wednesday in which he called for a national unity government of "new faces" representing all groups.

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Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140626/ml--iraq-b02c72e1b3.html

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Iraqi citizens, of those who fled from Mosul, Iraq, and other northern towns, are seen settle near a Kurdish security forces checkpoint, in Khazer area between the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Kurdish city of Irbil, northern Iraq, Thursday June 26, 2014. Hundreds of Iraqi villagers fleeing advances by Sunni militants crowded at a checkpoint on the edge of the country's Kurdish-controlled territory Thursday seeking shelter in the relative safety of the self-rule region, as Britain's top diplomat arrived in Baghdad to urge the country's leaders to unite against the insurgent threat. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)