Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has received direct and ongoing support from Iran during the eight years of his mandate, and has maintained excellent relations with Tehran throughout this period. He refrained from criticizing the Iranian regime while he was making scathing comments against [other] countries involved in the situation in Iraq. Maliki did not express any opposition to Iran’s requests regarding Iraqi domestic issues, nor to those involving the country’s foreign affairs that are linked to Iran’s interests in Syria and other countries.

During the 2010 elections, Iran insisted on supporting Maliki and forced its allies from other Shiite parties to join hands in order to bring him to power for a second time, despite their strong objections and the objections of non-Shiite parties. Iran showed a tendency, before the elections, to keep Maliki in office for a third term, and there have been many negotiations in this regard.

Al-Monitor learned from a source close to the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad that [commander of the Quds Force] Qassem Soleimani came to Baghdad weeks prior to the elections to try to generate support for a consensus among Shiite party leaders — including those from Maliki's Dawa party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq led by Ammar al-Hakim and the Ahrar bloc led by Muqtada al-Sadr — in support of Maliki, but the leaders of the other parties resisted the effort. 

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other clerical leaders in Najaf have rejected an initiative to build consensus around Maliki serving a third term as prime minister, according to sources in Najaf. Follow-up meetings in Iran by Iraqi delegations from the Shiite parties were unsuccessful.