Good news from Iraq in a buried lede

The Headline was nice enough "Chalabi Lacks Votes Needed to Win Spot in Iraqi Assembly"

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Naseer Nouri
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 27, 2005; Page A18

The thought of how Jim Hoagland will discuss this on the op ed page was briefly amusing until I realised that he will just drop Chalabi and move on to the next error.

However, I think the article contains fairly important very good news.

The deal-making has led to meetings among rivals at opposite extremes of Iraqi politics to feel out any possible alliance. On Saturday, the effort brought Saleh Mutlak -- a Sunni politician previously derided by Shiites as a front for insurgents -- together with Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite religious party whose militia Sunnis accuse of running anti-Sunni death squads. Both sides confirmed the meeting Monday.

"We have agreed that we should form a government of national unity without suggesting any names," Mutlak said. "And they've agreed on the principle and were very positive about it." He said there were "no results for these talks yet, but all expectations show that we are on the right track to solve the problem."

The deal-making has led to meetings among rivals at opposite extremes of Iraqi politics to feel out any possible alliance. On Saturday, the effort brought Saleh Mutlak -- a Sunni politician previously derided by Shiites as a front for insurgents -- together with Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite religious party whose militia Sunnis accuse of running anti-Sunni death squads. Both sides confirmed the meeting Monday.

"We have agreed that we should form a government of national unity without suggesting any names," Mutlak said. "And they've agreed on the principle and were very positive about it." He said there were "no results for these talks yet, but all expectations show that we are on the right track to solve the problem."

Before reading this, I was reduced to hoping that the complaints about election fraud were just part of the bargaining process. Now it is clear. The election results were not ideal because the current majority was in a position to mantain power without compromising with the Sunni's. However, it seems Al Hakim is sensible enough to understand that votes are not key at the moment. I'm not sure how much his determination to find a compromise with the Sunni's is based on pressure from Bush and I don't care.

One possible outcome in Iraq is civil war, the other is a coordinated assault on the treasury by all of the greedy politicians in Iraq. The chances for the second look much better than they did yesterday.

Now I wonder if the Shi'ite bargaining strategy (and especially the truly weird negotiations of al Hakim and Mutlak) is to make it clear that they have to reach agreement with at least one Sunni party but they don't care which one millionth as much as the two Sunni partys want to be that one.