********Update Breaking News**********

One of my Iraqi friends is predicting the new Shiite nominee for Prime Minister will be Qasim Dawood. I am not familiar with this man. If anyone is please let us know.

It looks like it. The New York Times headline reads Iraqi Premier Allows Vote That Could End Deadlock

the Times is reporting:

In a sudden reversal, embattled Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said today that he was willing to relinquish his job, a move that was hailed by some other political leaders as a potential breakthrough in the stalemate has fueled the country’s bitter sectarian violence.

After his announcement, a planned session of Parliament was canceled to allow for the Shiite coalition to which Mr. Jaafari belongs to choose another candidate.

At a news conference outside the legislative hall, President Jalal Talabani expressed confidence that with the hurdle of the prime minister past, other disputes over top government jobs could be quickly overcome.

“There will be a friendly atmosphere and there will be a national unity government,” he said.

This is fantastic news for Iraq, and for the American troops serving there in harms way. As one of my Iraqi friends told me via email the other day:

do you know what people call jafari who is one of the obstacles in the way of forming the government? They call him 2 nd Saddam because he holds his position with his arms and teeth as we say.

hopefully today Iraq can move forward.

Others blogging on this breaking news:

PoliBlog isn’t holding his breath.

It seems as if we have been at this point before, so I shan’t hold my breath. However, I believe that this is the most specific statement along these lines that I have seen (i.e., the specific statement that a replacement would come fro Dawa, etc).

PrairiePundit Thinks Al Jaafri’s shenanigans point out a flaw in the Iraqi Constitution.

The passive aggressive stance that al Jaafri has taken in the stalemate demonstrates a weakness in the Iraqi constitution. There needs to be a way to force a vote on the prime minister job, such as a confidence vote in the UK parliament. If such a vote were taken, this mess could have been resolved months ago.

Donlephant is reporting that a senior Shiite political leader, Jawad al-Maliki is in the running.

Obviously it’s too soon to tell what’s going to happen, but I certainly hope this means more good news in the future.

Outside the Beltway thinks this is potentially a huge step forward toward democracy and stability.

That’s it in a nutshell, I think. This is the best news out of Iraq in months. There’s still a lot that could go wrong, to be sure, but if this leads to the formation of a popularly acceptable governing coalition, we are at least back on track.

Gateway Pundit

Finally, this may be the key to forming the new government that has been locked in a stalemate for weeks and months:

Al-Maliki and another leading Dawa politician, Ali al-Adeeb, have been touted as possible replacements for al-Jaafari.

Big Lizards knows who it won’t be.

It won’t be Adel Abdul-Mahdi of the SCIRI, the man Jaafari barely edged out last time; that would be too humiliating to the Dawa Party. Dawa and the SCIRI have more or less come to a tacit agreement that if Jaafari leaves, his replacement will also be from Dawa; this is to prevent the UIA from splitting apart at the seams.

Atlas Shrugs advises Iraqis to beware.

The more open and democratic a society is, the more it is exposed to terror. The more a country is free, the more vulnerable it is to massacres of terror.

This is what is happening in Iraq.