Integral to being an Arab is being an Arab, speaking arabic, and living in the Arab world. The Shi’a/Sunni divorce in Iraq was long ago in reconciliation by intermarriage even as the Sunni minority, embodied in the Tikriti mob, held sway over the Shi’a majority.

That “loan” of power seems to have been put through a workout during the factional adjustments of the past few years.

Again, Maliki has a sovereign country to run; he’ll meet with another destiny if he accepts Iran as a surzerain.