Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani said on Friday that the Iraqi parliament’s inability to agree on a new government in its first session was a “regrettable failure.”

Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani said on Friday that the Iraqi parliament’s inability to agree on a new government in its first session was a “regrettable failure.”

In a Friday sermon delivered by his aide, Ahmed al-Safi, Sayyed Sistani said: “Last Tuesday the first session of parliament convened. People were optimistic that this would be a good start for this council in its commitment to the constitutional and legal texts.” “But what happened afterwards, in that the speaker and his deputies were not elected before the session finished, was a regrettable failure.”

Sayyed Sistani reiterated his call for the government to have “broad national acceptance.”

A week ago, his eminence Sistani urged lawmakers at their opening session to put aside disputes and form a new government to tackle an insurgency spearheaded by an al Qaeda splinter group that could fracture the country.

But on Tuesday parliament's first meeting since its election in April ended without progress toward a government after lawmakers walked out, complaining that some MPs had not decided on a prime minister.