Just to clarify a point of confusion. Iyad Allawi who I have written about previously is to be appointed as Iraq's new Prime Minister, however this does not mean that he is to run the country as I had assumed and may have mistakenly implied. Instead the big cheese is to be the new president, Sheikh Ghazi Al-Yawer, although even he will have only limited powers. My bad.

That said, the presence of an ex-Ba'athist, apparently implicated in terrorist attacks against fellow anti-Saddamists, with close links to the CIA and presumably MI6, at such an important position within the Interim Government does not bode well for Iraq's future.