"Allawi and Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr held a news conference Thursday in Najaf, a city holy to Shiite Muslims. Sadr, a former militia leader whose supporters won 40 of the 325 seats in the elections, allied only reluctantly with Maliki when the government was finally formed in December. "We are not seeking positions, but looking for the interests of the people, the progress of Iraq and its stability," said Allawi, whose bloc has 91 seats to Maliki's 89. "There are broad and profound areas of common ground between us and the Sadr movement," Allawi said." I liked that Allawi (former puppet prime minister/car bomber/Saddam's henchman/embezzler-in-Yemen) declared support for protesters in Iraq.