Iraqi parties have finally crossed a major hurdle on the road towards a functioning parliamentary system by selecting the veteran Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as president and nominating two vice-presidents representing the country's Shia and Sunni religious communities.
This opens the way towards the nomination of a prime minister and a transitional government to replace the interim one appointed by the occupying US authorities last summer. Once that is done the 275-strong transitional assembly elected on January 31st can commence its main task, drafting a constitution, which will then be put to a referendum.
Many voices have been raised to say the long delay between the election and these first moves to implement its mandate reveals how difficult it will be to install a democratic system in Iraq. This has bolstered the resistance movement against continuing US-led occupation of the country. It says there is much more continuity than difference between these new leaders and the government nominated by the US-led occupation authorities last summer. There is indeed some truth in these criticisms. But they overlook the fact that agreement has eventually been reached to share out these symbolic posts between Kurds, Shia and Sunni leaders. It is expected agreement will shortly be announced that an Islamic Shia politician, Ibrahim Jaafari, is to be prime minister.
It will fall to him to nominate a cabinet. There are persistent reports of deep disagreement on who should get the oil, defence and foreign affairs portfolios; but it is unlikely the process should have got so far if there were no prospect of agreement on them. The celebrations in Kurdistan yesterday and the upbeat statements from the parties are evidence that the process has established some legitimacy, even if it is still dominated by formerly exiled leaders and those involved in the interim government. The disquiet voiced yesterday by Sunni parties not directly involved in the process reveals how precarious it is and how urgent is the need to convince Sunnis to get involved in the next stage - negotiations on a constitution - if the military resistance is to be reduced.
Major issues in those talks are whether Iraq is to be a federal or a centralised state, a secular or an Islamic one, and how the new state will relate to neighbouring Turkey, Iran and Syria. This is a huge agenda requiring far more open political debate and deliberation than has been involved so far. A great deal will depend on whether a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops can be agreed to coincide with the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty and self-rule.