Cabinet deal falters as nominee rejects job

IRAQ’S parliament approved six new ministers yesterday, hoping to fill the political void that has stoked the insurgency, but one minister turned down the job, leaving the Cabinet still incomplete three months after polls.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari had announced the Cabinet was complete after months of bickering to agree the balance of power between competing sectarian and ethnic blocs, and vowed to crack down on an escalating insurgency.

But proposed Human Rights Minister Hisham al-Shibli told Reuters he had been picked purely to placate Iraq’s restive Sunni Arab minority, and said he was rejecting the post.