"These alliances between (IS) and others have a strategic fault line that is starting to crack," he said. In an interview with Reuters in June when Islamic State had just begun its lightning advance through northern Iraq, he stressed a need for the government in Baghdad to woo back Sunnis who had reluctantly embraced the fighters. "The honeymoon is officially over." In his own public remarks, Abadi, a religious Shi'ite who spent two decades in exile in Britain during the rule of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, has emphasised the importance of reconciliation among Iraq's sects and ethnic groups. But the prime minister, who was sworn in along with most of his cabinet on Monday, has already hit obstacles, with politicians using brinkmanship to pressure him, said another Western diplomat. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a former Iraqi national security advisor and leading Shi'ite politician, said Abadi was already off to a good start by ensuring that political groups inside Iraq, as well as Washington and Tehran, have given him their backing. The diplomat described watching Abadi tell a joke at the start of a meeting, disarming a tense atmosphere in a way that would have been impossible for Maliki. diplomat who worked in Baghdad identified him as someone with the right temperament: less conspiratorial and guarded than Maliki and less inclined to take disagreement personally. Before Abadi was picked as leader, a former U.S. ![]() He has to make the Americans happy, he has to make the Iranians happy." "Can he? I don't think so." HONEYMOON IS OVER The new leader takes office with the public good will of nearly all of Iraq's major political groups, as well as the two most influential outside powers, Iran and the United States, who both pulled the plug on Maliki as the army collapsed in the face of an onslaught by Islamic State militants. He has to make the Sunnis happy to turn them against IS. He has to make the (Shi'ite religious leadership) happy. A senior Kurdish politician listed the tasks, which include winning Sunnis back from armed revolt, persuading Kurds not to break away and convincing Abadi's own Shi'ites that he has the steel to protect them from fighters bent on their annihilation. But behind the scenes, many say it will take more than a change in personality at the top to save Iraq from collapse. Diplomats and politicians from across Iraq's political spectrum say they believe Abadi is far better suited to bridging differences than Maliki, who was pushed out of office last month with a third of his country in the hands of Islamic State. ![]() A former engineer widely described as an amiable and witty pragmatist, Abadi vindicated supporters at home and abroad by including Sunnis, Kurds and members of his own divided Shi'ite majority in a unity government approved by parliament on Monday. Haider al-Abadi was handpicked last month to detoxify a political system poisoned to the point of collapse under the dour and mercurial Nuri al-Maliki. By Raheem Salman, Oliver Holmes and Ned Parker BAGHDAD (Reuters) - It is no coincidence that Iraq's new prime minister is more likeable than his predecessor.
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