The key phrase in that headline has to be the “in principle” hedging. Still, this is a promising development for those who saw the worst in the recent Iraqi parliamentary elections.
Iraq’s Shiite and Kurdish leaders said on Thursday that they agree in principle to enlarge the next government’s cabinet to include representatives of other communities in a bid to push for a national unity government.
“The Kurdish coalition and the Shiite alliance agree in principle on a government of national unity,” Kurdish leader and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told reporters after a meeting with Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim in Dokhan, a mountain resort 400km north of Baghdad.
However, Talabani specified that there would be some restrictions in the forming of an enlarged cabinet, saying, “the other parties must believe in certain principles,” including “rejection of terrorism.”
While the move is obviously intended to allay concerns about election irregularities or the lack of support for secular entities, it is still a move in the right direction. Democracy is a series of missteps heading in the right general direction … hopefully; this is no different for the fledgling attempt in Iraq. Every effort toward inclusion should be considered a welcome one.