Allawi's bloc suspends participation in cabinet as 'a first step to withdraw from the Iraqi government'

Left: Ayad Allawi was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq prior to the 2005 legislative elections. He has been working to form a new coalition, with the goal of replacing Maliki as Prime Minister. Above: The major players -- Nuri al-Maliki (Prime Minister, Shiite), Tariq al-Hashemi (one of two Vice Presidents, Sunni), Moqtada al-Sadr ('fiery' anti-American cleric, Shiite), Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim (head of the largest Shiite coalition), Jalal Talabani (President of Iraq, Kurd, Qadiri Sufi sect of Sunnism), and Massoud Barzani (President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Naqshbandi Sufi sect of Sunnisim). The Sunni bloc recently returned to parliament after Mahmud Mashhadani was reinstated as speaker, but has withdrawn its cabinet ministers from Maliki's cabinet. Sadr's parliamentary bloc also returned recently to the legislature following a protest of the most recent bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, but also withdrew from the cabinet in April. The U.S. military has said that Sadr is back in Iran, which Sadr's aides deny.

5 more ministers boycot Iraqi Cabinet, further crippling government

The five Cabinet ministers loyal to Iraq's first post-Saddam leader will boycott government meetings, further deepening the political crisis that threatens to swamp the administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, two lawmakers said on Monday.

The boycott of Iraqiya List ministers loyal to former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi left the government, at least temporarily, with no Sunni participants. That was a deep blow to al-Maliki's attempt to craft reconciliation among the country's majority Shiites and minority Sunnis and Kurds.

Iraqiya List lawmaker Iyad Jamal-Aldin said the Allawi bloc had suspended Cabinet participation because al-Maliki failed to respond to demands for political reform issued five months ago.

He said the suspension was not tied to the decision last week by the top Sunni political bloc to pull its six ministers out of the 40-member Cabinet.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

Allawi asks his five ministers to call it quits

Iyad Allawi, leader of the Iraqi National List, asked the five INL ministers not to attend the cabinet meetings and to boycott Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as "a first step to withdraw from the Iraqi government" in protest against its policies, an INL official said.

"Allawi's calls came in response to the Iraqi premier's failure to fulfill the pledges he had taken upon himself for the INL five months ago," Osama al-Nejefi, an INL member of the Iraqi parliament, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Nejefi did not reveal the INL's demands but said "they have to do with political and security reforms." He noted that the INL ministers will settle for doing the necessary works of their ministries from their offices without having to attend any cabinet meetings to avoid causing delays in citizens' interests."

The INL is the largest fourth bloc in the Iraqi parliament with 24 out of a total 275 seats. The largest bloc is the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) with 115 seats, followed by the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) with 55 and the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) with 44.

The five portfolios of the INL ministers are justice, communications, human rights, science and a state ministry.

Maliki's government is facing a quandary after the INL's decision, preceded by the IAF's decision to a week ago to withdraw its five ministers and Depurty Premier Sallam al-Zawbaie from the government allegedly due to its failure to deliver on its promises for requested reforms.

The Sadrist bloc, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, had withdrawn its six ministers from the government for the latter's failure to come up with a timetable for the U.S. forces' pullout from Iraq.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani paid a visit on Sunday to Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi, a leading IAF member, and agreed to convene a meeting on Monday to discuss the Sunni front's demands for the Maliki government.

A statement issued by Hashimi's office after the meeting indicated that Talabani conveyed to his deputy the outcome of a meeting held on Sunday morning between the Iraqi president and Premier Maliki, which was attended by Vice Premier Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

Maliki had said on Sunday that "efforts were going on to dissuade the IAF from its decision to withdraw from the government."

"We agreed on doing everything we can to have the brothers in the IAF back to their roles and work in accordance with agreements during the talks to reconsider the policies and mend what we can," Maliki said in statements after his meeting with Talabani.

From VOI

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