New Shiite party leader emerges

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Jawad al-Maliki, an experienced political operator and advocate for Iraq's Shiite Muslims, won the approval of Shiite party leaders for the post of prime minister on Friday, a day after the parties' original nominee bowed out under political pressure.

The move could end the political paralysis that has gripped Iraq since national elections were held on Dec. 15. Maliki, a senior member of the coalition of Shiite parties that holds the largest number of seats in Iraq's parliament, is now on course to lead Iraq's first long-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein. If ultimately chosen, the former exile would inherit grave challenges, among them an economy in tatters, an insurgent movement that continues to attack Iraq's government and its U.S. backers, and ethnic and sectarian tensions that threaten to tear the country apart.

Leaders of the Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, said Friday night that Maliki's nomination by the alliance's political committee would face a vote by the full membership this morning. If approved, his name would be formally presented to Iraq's parliament, along with a list of nominees for other top posts, this afternoon.

But events rarely proceed so smoothly in the Iraqi political process, which has been held up for months by the debate over who would be prime minister. The incumbent, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, won the alliance's nomination in February, only to be opposed by Sunni Arab and Kurdish political parties. Jaafari, who like Maliki is a leader of the Dawa party, gave in to weeks of heavy pressure and surrendered his nomination on Thursday.

On Friday night, leaders of the Shiite alliance said they had gained support for Maliki from the leaders of the Sunni Arab and Kurdish political blocs.

The Shiite leaders also said they had reached an understanding with other factions over who would hold other top posts in the next government, including those of the president and two deputy presidents, who hold the formal power to nominate a prime minister. An aide to Jaafari, Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, said the Shiites had agreed to yield the presidential post to the incumbent, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. His two deputies, they said, would be Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader of the Sunni Arab coalition, and Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite economist who had been a rival to Jaafari.

Maliki appears to hold a stronger mandate within the Shiite alliance than did Jaafari, who was chosen over Abdul Mahdi in February by a single vote. Maliki's only remaining opponent among the Shiite parties is Nadim al-Jabiri, a candidate of the Fadhila Party, whose representative abstained from the political committee's vote on Maliki.