Sunni bloc to withdraw from Iraqi government

The head of the largest Sunni political bloc today said Prime Minister Nouri Maliki had not met the group’s demands and it would go ahead with a planned withdrawal from the Iraqi government.

The resignation of six Cabinet ministers from the Iraqi Accordance Front could erase the government’s “national unity” status and diminish its legitimacy – a serious blow at a time when it needs to move swiftly on legislation the United States considers critical to reconciliation of Iraq’s Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish factions.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Accordance Front and a harsh critic of al-Maliki, said his bloc was “still insisting on withdrawing from the government if it doesn’t meet our fair and objective demands.”

“We don’t want to take part in a government which claims it is a national unity one, but instead is sectarian rather than Iraqi,” al-Dulaimi said. Al-Dulaimi himself has been accused by senior Shiite and Kurdish politicians of inciting sectarian strife.

The Sunni Arab bloc last week suspended its Cabinet membership and said it would quit today if Maliki did not meet its demands: to disband militias, pardon security detainees not charged with specific crimes and include all coalition partners in security decisions.

“The government has not contacted us up until this moment, and it appears that it will not respond,” al-Dulaimi said.

In addition to its six Cabinet ministers, the Accordance Front holds 44 of the Iraqi parliament’s 275 seats. But al-Dulaimi said that his politicians would stay in the legislature.

“Withdrawing from the government doesn’t mean that we will abandon the whole political process. We will continue our participation...through the parliament and we will contact other parliamentary blocs to achieve our demands,” he said.