Tehran 'vetted' Abdul Mahdi and is'satisfied' with him ...

Juan Cole:

"... Aljazeera Arabic is reporting that Iran vetted Abdul Mahdi and is satisfied with him. The Sadrists, it says, only agreed to accept him if he would agree not to extend the Status of Forces Agreement with the United States. (The SOFA calls for all US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011, but I take it the Sadrists are afraid some units will be asked to remain by the prime minister, and Abdul Mahdi had to promise not to do that).

Unfortunately, the selection of Abdul Mahdi by the NAI does not resolve Iraq’s political gridlock. Since the Shiite fundamentalists have only 70 seats, they need a bigger partner in order to form a government. But a bigger partner is unlikely to accept their candidate for prime minister. The Iraqiya is standing behind Iyad Allawi, and the State of Law has so far stood with Nuri al-Maliki.

The only way for Abdul Mahdi actually to become PM would be for the State of Law coalition, with the Islamic Mission Party (Da’wa) at its core, to vote for him and to dump al-Maliki. Such a development cannot be ruled out. But State of Law, with 89 seats, probably would want a Da’wa prime minister rather than to accept someone from the NAI coalition, which only has 70 seats (and ISCI from whence Abdul Mahdi hails has only a handful of seats).

File under ‘interesting development,’ but don’t get too excited yet that it presages the formation of an Iraqi government..."

AP:

"...The INA is currently in a shaky coalition with al-Maliki's State of Law bloc, primarily because some figures within the Alliance are fiercely opposed to al-Maliki keeping his post. However, by putting forward their own candidate, the INA is not seeking to break up the alliance with the State of Law, but rather to extend the negotiation process and pressure the party to dump al-Maliki as its candidate.

"This is all really an attempt by INA to put pressure on State of Law to throw al-Maliki under the bus," said Joost Hiltermann, an Iraq analyst at the International Crisis Group. "That will only happen when State of Law has no other choice."...