We know today that Maliki will par­tic­i­pate in the elec­tion under the “State of Law” form­ing his own coali­tion within a week, despite the final warn­ing sent to Maliki by Iran, as reported on Al-Quds Al-Arabi saying:

Sources told Al-Quds Al-Arabi that Iran has increased the pres­sure against Prime Min­is­ter Nuri Al-Maliki, telling him that Iran will not allow him to become the next prime min­is­ter again.

The sources added that the warn­ing issued by the Iran­ian Qods Brigades, came after Dawa Party rejected all calls to join INA.

Sources also revealed to the same news­pa­per that Syria will make any polit­i­cal or secu­rity deal at the expense of the Ba’athists in Syria.

AL-Hayat reported that Wash­ing­ton is not very com­fort­able with Maliki’s deci­sion of inter­na­tion­al­ize the cri­sis with Syria.

Same news­pa­per also reported that Iraqi politi­cians are also uncom­fort­able with Maliki’s rejec­tion of Arab medi­a­tion to find a solu­tion say­ing that this deci­sion will iso­late Iraq from its Arab neighbors.

There is some truth in the pre­dic­tion, because Maliki was not invited, and Asad’s sud­den deci­sion to attend the Saudi “cel­e­bra­tion” is one move to Iso­late Maliki.

Accord­ing Al-Safir:

Every­body aston­ished to see Bashar Al-Assad, there was a burst of applause in the airport.