US pressure forces move to reconciliation· Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties achieve consensus
· Deal may not be enough to end boycott of cabinet
Ian Black, Middle East editor and Ed Pilkington
Monday August 27, 2007
The GuardianNuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, and fellow
leaders in the country have reached consensus on
key areas of national reconciliation, under mounting
US pressure to demonstrate political progress on the
eve of a key report to Congress on the Baghdad
security "surge".
The Shia prime minister appeared on television
flanked by Jalal Talabani, the country's Kurdish
president, and the Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-
Hashemi, to announce a deal on easing restrictions
on former members of the Ba'ath party joining the
civil service and military.
-snip-It was not immediately clear how, or when, these
moves would be implemented and how far they
would go to reversing the almost total Sunni
boycott of the cabinet - the centre of Mr Maliki's
difficulties. The beleaguered prime minister,
facing mounting criticism from within the Bush
administration, announced earlier that Mr Hashemi's
Iraqi Islamic party was about to join with the four
Shia and Kurdish parties which recently forged an
alliance.
-snip-