With his backers and indeed his own party--the Dawa Party--deserting him, Nouri al-Maliki was left with little choice but to relinquish the post of prime minister. Will Iraq now be able to rise above sectarianism and develop into a stable entity? It will depend on the policies the Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi adopts.
If Turkish editors and commentators are right in their assessment of the effect of Abdullah Öcalan’s conciliatory gestures from prison on popular and establishment attitudes towards Kurdish rights and on the question of whether or not to execute him...
