Pressure continued to build Friday on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, with the country’s top Shi’ite cleric calling on political groups to agree on a new leader by Tuesday.
Iraq’s recently-elected parliament is meeting Tuesday to begin the process of forming what many hope will be a more inclusive government that does not marginalize Iraq’s Sunni minority.
Maliki is losing some Shi’ite allies. On Friday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on political blocs to agree on a new prime minister, president, and parliament speaker by the Tuesday meeting.
The prime minister has rejected forming an emergency government, saying that would go against the country’s constitution and the results of the April 30 parliamentary election.
Maliki’s future is expected to be a topic for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, who meet Friday in Riyadh to discuss how to confront Sunni extremists that have taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria.
Kerry met Thursday in Paris with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, in an effort to rally regional unity against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
