The Iraqi parliament was approved on May 20th. The 37 -member cabinet ( List of ministers ), however, is still without ministers of defense and interior over differences between Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds. The main Shia alliance, the United Iraqi Alliance, which holds 130 out of the 275 seats in parliament seized 19 of the 37 ministries including the powerful oil and finance portfolios. The main Kurdish bloc snatched seven ministries including the Foreign Ministry while the National Accord Front, the main Sunni bloc, grabbed six ministries. Former premier Iyad Allawi's Iraqi list secured five including the Ministry of Justice and Human rights. More
The distribution of cabinet posts among coalitions and parties has produced substantial discontent in the Iraqi parliament. The Iraqi Turkmen Front expressed its disappointment that it was entirely excluded from any cabinet post. Some members of the United Iraqi Alliance complained of nepotism and that they had been passed over for a cabinet post, and that it was given instead to persons less competent or experienced.
In what has become an absurd ritual, the US and its allies immediately hailed the government as another triumph for democracy in the Middle East. President Bush declared that it was “a good day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom” and “a new chapter in our relationship with Iraq”. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who flew to Baghdad on Monday to give his seal of approval to the regime, pronounced it to be “a new beginning”.
These comments bear no relation to reality. The vast majority of Iraqis who live in squalour and fear outside the Green Zone had no say in the formation of the government or its policies. Every aspect of the process since the December 15 elections has been managed and supervised by US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and a small army of US officials stationed at the American embassy in Baghdad.
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On February 12th, 2006, Iraq's largest parliamentary bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance had selected the incumbent Ibrahim al-Jaafari as their candidate for Prime Minister, but was meet with objections from Kurdish groups as well as the US (the US seemed to be in favor of Abdul Mehdi who was the most friendly of the candidates for US business interests). On April 14, Mohammed Redha al-Sistani, negotiating on behalf of his father Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, brokered an agreement with al-Sadr and Abdul Mehdi. Under this agreement, al-Sadr agreed not to object to dropping Jafaari, and in exchange Abdul Mehdi would not seek the Prime Minstership himself, settling for his existing post of Vice President. On April 21, Iraq's largest parliamentary bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance nominated Nouri al-Maliki to the post of Prime Minister.
The new parliament is virtually hung, and Prime Minister al-Maliki governs as a minority prime minister, being able to count on less than 115 MPs from his own party, in a parliament with 275 members. He is therefore hostage to the Kurds, who want to move Iraq in the direction of having a very weak central government and who want to unilaterally annex a fourth province, oil-rich Kirkuk, to their regional confederacy, despite the violent opposition of Kirkuk's Turkmen and Arab populations.

Iraq: Still failing | Iraqis Already Frustrated with Government | Iraqis leaders debate positions while ordinary Iraqis turn up dead and tortured | Bloody day heralds birth of Iraq's new unity government | Maliki to Present Partial Cabinet

Sectarian tension has been running high in Iraq, with hundreds, mostly Sunnis, killed in reprisal attacks triggered by the bombing of the Imam Ali Al-Hadi in Samarra in March. The sectarian bloodshed has prompted a redrawing of some neighborhoods, with minorities moving out and going to places where they are part of the majority community. It has also prompted many Iraqis to change names to spare themselves the sectarian hell.
In the two parliamentary elections and a referendum on the constitution in 2005, Iraqis voted along strictly sectarian or ethnic lines. The Shia and Sunni religious parties and the Kurdish coalition triumphed; secular and nationalist candidates performed dismally. The new constitution shifting power to Kurdish and Shia super-regions with control over new oil discoveries means that, in future, Iraq will be largely a geographical expression.
The state of Iraq now resembles Bosnia at the height of the fighting in the 1990s when each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves. Sunni extremists are conducting a campaign of indiscriminate terror against the Shiite population and Shiite death squads are murdering hundreds of Sunni Iraqis who they consider to be sympathisers of the anti-occupation insurgency or the former Baathist regime. Even according to official figures, at least 762 people were killed in Baghdad during April. While the majority of victims were Sunnis, others—such as liberal intellectuals, gays and liquor sellers—were killed because their lifestyle, beliefs or occupation were anathema to the religious fanatics.

Iran is perhaps the only unambiguous winner in the new situation in Iraq, and its foreign minister was basking in the glow on Saturday. On May 26th, Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari defended Iran's right to have a civilian nuclear energy program.