Iraq’s president named veteran Shiite politician Haider al-Abadi as the new Prime Minister and asked him to form a new government.  But interim Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki refused to relinquish office and created the conditions for a dangerous showdown by deploying militias and Special Forces on the streets of Baghdad.

US President Barack Obama has said the naming of Haider al-Abadi as Iraq’s prime minister-designate is a “promising step forward”.  Both Obama and Vice President Biden called Abadi to express their support.  The 62-year old now has 30 days to form a government.  During that time Maliki will remain the caretaker prime minister.  But the troops Maliki deployed in Baghdad are answerable to the Prime Minister alone, and he doesn’t appear to want to go.

“I am Nouri al-Maliki, and I am the head of State of Law (Ruling coalition), and I am the head of Dawa (party), and no one has the right to deal under our name without my approval,” Maliki said in a speech.

In his eight years as Prime Minister, Maliki has consolidated power and angered the Kurds and Sunnis by cutting them out of key positions.  The US maintains that the first step in combating the threat posed by Islamic State’s Sunni militants in the north is for a unity government to take power in Baghdad. 

The rest of the army indicated Monday that its loyalties do not lie with Maliki – something broadly assumed when troops abandoned their positions and refused to fight for Maliki’s government as Islamic State advanced from the frontier with Syria to take control huge swaths of Iraq.

Critics also complain that Maliki owns the judiciary.  On Monday, he asked Iraq’s Supreme Court to void Abadi’s appointment.  Maliki claims that his State of Law bloc, rather than a wider Shiite coalition, should have been allowed to form the new government.