Sunni Arabs threaten to quit government

Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab bloc today said it has suspended its membership of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s coalition government, dealing a serious blow to the Shiite leader’s efforts to achieve national reconciliation.

The Iraqi Accordance Front, which has five Cabinet members as well as 44 of parliament’s 275 seats, said it was giving Maliki a week to meet their demands or they would quit his 14-month-old Cabinet altogether.