UPI, Baghdad, May 7, 2010 — The Iraqi political alliance by two leading Shiite coalitions was orchestrated by Iran, a spokesman for the secular Iraqiya slate said.

The Iraqiya slate of former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi won a narrow victory over the State of Law coalition of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in March 7 elections for the Iraqi Council of Representatives. Neither party secured the 163 seats needed to unilaterally form a government in the 325-member council, however.

State of Law announced Tuesday, however, that it formed a coalition with the Iraqi National Alliance, leaving the Shiite coalition four seats shy of a ruling majority.

Haidar al-Mulla, a spokesman for Iraqiya, told Arab news station al-Jazeera that Iran was behind the Shiite coalition.

’Iranian fingerprints are obvious in the way the alliance was formed and announced,’ he said.

Khalid al-Asadi, who helped form State of Law, said the allegations were ’a kind of sectarian incitement.’

The two Shiite slates are still without an agreement on who will serve as prime minister. A Kurdish slate that won 43 seats in the March 7 vote said it would back the alliance once a formal power-sharing agreement is reached.

A recount in the Baghdad, which has 70 parliamentary seats, is under way and several candidates are awaiting a ruling on their victory from the Justice and Accountability Commission.

Washington said a Sunni purge targeting some members of Iraqiya launched by JAC prior to the vote was hatched in Iran. Ahmed Chalabi, a leading member of INA, heads JAC.