Top Shia cleric calls for new Iraqi government

The most influential Shia cleric in Iraq called on the country's leaders on Friday to choose a new prime minister within the next four days, a dramatic political intervention that could hasten the end of Nouri al-Maliki's eight-year rule.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who commands unwavering loyalty from many Shias in Iraq and beyond, said political blocs should agree on the next premier, parliament speaker and president before a newly elected legislature meets on Tuesday.

Sistani's intervention makes it difficult for Maliki, also a Shia, to stay on as caretaker leader, as he has since a parliamentary election in April. That means he must either build a coalition to confirm himself in power for a third term or step aside.

Sistani's message was delivered after a meeting of Shia factions, including Maliki's State of Law coalition, failed to agree to a consensus candidate for prime minister.

The United States and other countries are pushing for a new, inclusive government to be formed as quickly as possible to counter the insurgency led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an armed Sunni group formerly allied with Al-Qaeda.

The embattled Maliki accused his political foes of trying to prevent parliament from meeting on time and of stirring up violence to interfere with the political process.

"They worked to postpone the elections ... and now they are working to postpone the first session of the council of representatives ... but if they are not able to pressure us to postpone, they will go for inciting security incidents in Baghdad," he said during a televised meeting with commanders.

Over the past two weeks, armed rebels have overrun most majority Sunni areas in north and western Iraq with little resistance, advancing to within an hour's drive of Baghdad.

Iraq's million-strong army, trained and equipped by the U.S. at a cost of some $25 billion, largely evaporated in the north after the rebels launched their assault with the capture of the city of Mosul on June 10.

Thousands of Shia volunteers have responded to an earlier call by Sistani for all Iraqis to rally behind the military to defeat the rebels.

Under Iraq's governing system, put in place after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the prime minister has always been a Shia, the largely ceremonial president a Kurd and the speaker of parliament a Sunni. Negotiations over the positions have often been drawn out. After the last election in 2010 it took nearly 10 months for Maliki to build a coalition to stay in office.

Divvying up the three posts in the four days before parliament meets, as sought by Sistani, would require leaders from each of Iraq's three main ethnic and sectarian groups to commit to the political process and swiftly resolve their most pressing political problems, above all the fate of Maliki.

"What is required of the political blocs is to agree on the three [posts] within the remaining days to this date," Sistani's representative said in a sermon on Friday, referring to Tuesday's constitutional deadline for parliament to meet.

Maliki, whose State of Law coalition won the most seats in the April election, was positioning himself for a third term before the ISIL onslaught began. His closest allies say he still aims to stay, but senior State of Law figures have said he could be replaced with a less polarizing figure.

Sunnis accuse Maliki of excluding them from power and repressing their sect, driving armed tribal groups to back the insurgency led by ISIL. The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region has also said Maliki should go.

A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted that Maliki was now done.

“It looks like the debate is whether it is going to be Tareq Najem from inside State of Law or someone from outside Maliki's alliance," the diplomat said, referring to Maliki's one-time chief of staff and a senior member of his Dawa party.

"It is generally understood it will not be Maliki," the diplomat said. "Security was his big thing, and he failed."

Allies of Maliki said Sistani's call for a quick decision was not aimed at sidelining the premier, but at putting pressure on all political parties not to draw out the process with infighting as the country risks disintegration.

Even neighboring Iran, which has been a stalwart ally of the Maliki government, has in recent days indicated its displeasure with his rule.

Iraq’s Kurds have yet to agree on a candidate for president, and the Sunnis are divided among themselves over the speaker's post.

Since ISIL’s advances over the past month, a pattern of internecine conflict across the country has culminated in a number of massacres and extrajudicial executions.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed the veracity of reports by ISIL that it had summarily executed members of the Iraqi military. It said those killings had likely taken place near Tikrit. HRW’s analysis of photographs and satellite imagery indicated ISIL had killed as many as 190 men in at least two locations over three days after capturing Tikrit, though it said the death toll may be much higher. The difficulty of locating bodies and getting to the area prevented a full investigation.

A day after HRW released its report, Amnesty International said it had gathered evidence pointing to a pattern of extrajudicial executions of detainees by government forces and Shia militias in the Iraqi cities of Tal Afar, Mosul and Baquba.

“Reports of multiple incidents where Sunni detainees have been killed in cold blood while in the custody of Iraqi forces are deeply alarming. The killings suggest a worrying pattern of reprisal attacks against Sunnis in retaliation for ISIS’ [another acronym for ISIL] gains,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser, said in a press release.

Fighters from ISIL have been joined by other, less radical groups who share their view that Sunnis have been persecuted under Maliki. Their onslaught has been halted outside the capital, but rebels have continued to advance and consolidate their gains elsewhere, including the area around Mosul in northwestern Iraq, which is home to many religious and ethnic minorities.

Rebels took control of six villages populated by the country's Shia Shabak minority southeast of Mosul after clashing with Kurdish peshmerga forces securing the area, according to a lawmaker and community leader.

Up to 10,000 people have also fled from the predominantly Christian community of Qaraqosh, southeast of Mosul, since Wednesday, fearful of becoming targets for ISIL, the U.N. refugee agency said.

Al Jazeera and wire services