Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
, with the country's top Shi'ite holy man 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.
