Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is on a visit to Tehran as part of a tour of regional countries, has had a meeting with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. “All Iraqi officials, statesmen and Iraq’s sympathizers should focus on the speedy formation of the government," said Iran's supreme leader, according to the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency.
Iraq has been unable to form a government more than seven months after inconclusive general elections left Allawi's party the narrow winner but without enough clout to form a government.
Both Iran and the US have been supporting al-Maliki's candidacy. The US hopes the prime minister will form a government in partnership with Allawi. Instead, Iran has brokered an alliance between Maliki and the movement led by the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtuda Sadr, who lives in Iran and is critical of the US role in Iraq.
At a later meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Maliki called for "an expansion of bilateral relations in all aspects" between Iraq and Iran, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA.
