The politicians met for the first time Tuesday since being elected in late April, but acting speaker Mahdi al-Hafidh ended the session after a number of members failed to return from a break. He said they would continue in a week if there is a possibility of an agreement.
Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
was a favorite to claim his third term after the election, but since then Sunni Islamist snuffies have captured large areas of northern and western Iraq and thrown the country into crisis.
Western leaders have urged Iraqi officials to form an inclusive government to counter sectarian divisions among its Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish populations.
Iraq has been operating under a system in which the prime minister is a Shi'ite, the president a Kurd and the head of parliament a Sunni.