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Iraq's new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi still has many challenges to grapple with, analysts said, despite parliament's recent approval of his cabinet and government reform program, which has raised hopes that the war-torn country can avoid a possible split-up amid violent and continuous sectarian clashes.
On Monday evening, Abadi vowed to create a more inclusive government that will decentralize power and implement reforms, a move which signals a shift that many in Iraq see as improving upon the failures of his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki.
But in an interview with Xinhua, Sabah al-Sheikh, a professor at Baghdad University, said he believes that forming an inclusive government under a month, while profound differences among the Iraqi factions still exist, is a very hard task for the newly- chosen prime minister.
"Abadi was supposed to win disenfranchised Sunnis to turn them against the Islamic State (IS), persuading Kurds not to break away from the country and convincing his own Shiites that he can protect the interests of their community," Sheikh said. "At the same time he needed to listen to the Americans and the Iranians as well."
Consensus among the new government is noticeably lacking, as two sensitive ministries, the defense and the interior ministries, are still both vacant. Analysts attribute this to domestic and international political pressure.
However, the quick formation of Abadi's cabinet in one month is a success in itself that has been significantly hastened following the advance of IS insurgents.
Since early June, the extremist IS and other Sunni anti- government insurgent groups have seized large swathes of territories in several predominantly Sunni Arab provinces, after the Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces were defeated easily in blitzkrieg by the militants.
"I believe that all the Iraqi political powers as well as the regional and world states have realized the size of danger that the IS represents to the political process and the unity of the country as well," Sheikh said.
Abadi's government has an opportunity to establish social harmony through a reconciliation process with Sunnis and settlement of disputes with the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan, the scholar said.
However, Abadi's urgent move is tackling the Sunni revolt and threats from the IS in a manner different from his predecessor, outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who was accused by opponents, both inside Iraq and abroad, of making things worse by excluding Sunnis and marginalizing them to the extent that they embraced the insurgency.
Abadi also has worked hard to meet the demands of the Kurds, who were about to announce boycott to his cabinet line-up, but at the last hours they returned on condition that the Kurdish demands to be resolved within three months.
Their demands included issues concerning the salaries, equipment and weapons for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, resolving disputes over territories in accordance with the Iraqi constitution, and the conclusion to oil and gas agreements, including the export of oil from the Kurdish region.
Najib al-Jubouri, a political analyst told Xinhua that he is not optimistic about Abadi's mission, as the minister continues to have problems in his own Dawa Party.
"He has a hard mission and more difficulties are coming because he won't have all powers in his hands, and hardliners in his Islamic Dawa Party will have their negative impacts on his performance," Jubouri said.
Abadi will also have to strongly confront corruption and cronyism that has shook the people's faith in the past governments, he added.
"It's hard to agree on common strategies, but the harder task is when you go into details," Jubouri added.
Abadi's outlined plans for Iraq include a national reconciliation program, counter-terrorism campaigns, as well as settlements of disputes with the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan.
