Largest Sunni Arab bloc quits Maliki governement

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 just returned to parliament after Mahmud Mashhadani was reinstated as speaker. 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 cabinet ministers from the Sadrist bloc also withdrew from the cabinet in April. The U.S. military has said that Sadr is back in Iran, which Sadr's aides are denying.

Iraq's Largest Sunni Bloc Quits Maliki Government

Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc has announced its withdrawal from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition government, saying he has failed to meet the bloc's demands.

Rafaa al-Issawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi Accordance Front told reporters in Baghdad that the bloc's six cabinet ministers would submit their resignations Wednesday.

Last week, the bloc gave the prime minister a list of demands, including dealing with Shi'ite militias and reforming the conduct of raids and arrests.

The Accordance Front has been boycotting Cabinet meetings since June to protest legal proceedings against Culture Minister Asad al-Hashimi, who is accused of arranging to have another politician killed.

From VOA

Sunni bloc exit threatens government

Al-Issawi said the decision to pull out from the government followed what he called Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s failure to respond to the Accordance Front. It gave him seven days to meet its demands, and the ultimatum expired Wednesday.

Among the demands: a pardon for security detainees not charged with specific crimes, the disbanding of militias and the participation of all groups represented in the government in dealing with security issues.

“The government is continuing with its arrogance, refusing to change its stand and has slammed shut the door to any meaningful reforms necessary for saving Iraq,” al-Issawi said.

“We had hoped that the government would respond to these demands or at least acknowledge the failure of its policies, which led Iraq to a level of misery it had not seen in modern history. But its stand did not surprise us at all,” he said, reading from a prepared statement.

Read the rest at the Detroit Free Press

Iraq's main Sunni bloc quits in blow to government

The decision by the National Concord Front effectively ends any claim by the Shiite-dominated coalition to be a government of national unity, and strikes another blow at Iraq's already faltering programme of national reconciliation...

Hashemi will remain vice president and the bloc's 44 parliamentarians will return to the National Assembly in September after its summer recess, where they will swell the already growing ranks of the opposition.

Maliki still has the support of his own Dawa Party and the Kurdish bloc, but his hopes of maintaining a parliamentary majority will rest on independent Shiite deputies and the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC).

When parliament returns all eyes will be on the Shiite SIIC to see if the party will continue to prop up Maliki's faltering government or attempt to win the premiership for one its own champions.

Read the rest at Yahoo News

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