Sadr wants ‘inclusive’ coalition formed soon

BAGHDAD: Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr called for an "inclusive" government to be formed quickly, as he sounded out the heads of key parliament factions over a coalition after his shock election win.

The preacher’s Marching Towards Reform alliance scooped 54 seats in an upset at May 12 polls to become the biggest bloc in Iraq’s 329-seat parliament. But Sadr -- whose militia battled American troops after the 2003 US-led invasion -- faces a mammoth task to stitch together a working majority as his demands for less foreign influence in Iraq have stirred tensions with both Washington and Tehran. In a bid to jumpstart negotiations, Sadr met over the weekend with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose group finished third, and Hadi al-Ameri, whose bloc of pro-Iranian former fighters came second.

After the meetings, the cleric urged "the formation of an inclusive government as quickly as possible" and called for a "nationwide political decision", his office said in a statement on Sunday. Sadr -- whose fighters were once accused of sectarian killings -- has reinvented himself as an anti-graft crusader looking to bridge Iraqi society in alliance with secular leftists.