BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An increasingly isolated Nuri al-Maliki again protested his removal as Iraqi prime minister on Wednesday, as his own political party and his former sponsor in Iran publicly endorsed a successor who many in Baghdad hope can halt advancing Sunni jihadists.
Although abandoned by former backers in the United States and Iraq's Shi'ite political and religious establishment, Maliki pressed his legal claim on power. Premier-designate Haider al-Abadi, meanwhile, held consultations on forming a coalition government that can unite warring factions after eight years that drove Sunnis to revolt over what they say was Maliki's sectarian bias.