Worried U.S. pushing Kurds not to sign onto Maliki’s government

The turnabout in the U.S. approach came after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr’s political faction agreed to support Prime Minister Nouri Maliki for a second term, propelling the incumbent close to the parliamentary majority he needs to keep his job…

The U.S. is supporting an initiative of the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, to convene a round-table meeting of all the major blocs aimed at forming a national unity government. In a telephone call to Barzani this month, Biden urged him to “expedite” the formation of such a government, according to a White House statement.

But Biden made it clear he did not want the Kurds to move swiftly toward any solution that excluded the Sunni Arabs, Kurdish officials say…

Negotiations between the Kurds and Maliki are already at a relatively advanced stage. Officials with Maliki’s State of Law coalition say they are ready to agree to almost everything on a list of Kurdish demands, including guarantees they would implement an article of Iraq’s Constitution that Kurds hope will give them control of the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Hard-line Sunni Arab factions within Allawi’s bloc oppose any deal that would result in Kurdish control of Kirkuk, leaving Allawi little room to maneuver.