LOC18:46
15:46 GMT
BAGHDAD, Aug 7 (KUNA) -- Four Iraqi cabinet ministers allied to former
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi boycotted a government meeting overnight, in a
further sign of the fragility of Nouri Al-Maliki's shrinking coalition.
The ministers from the Iraqi National List, a group of secular politicians
from both sides of Iraq's sectarian divide, staged the boycott less than a
week after six Sunni cabinet members resigned from the Shiite-led government.
"They started boycotting government meetings today. They will still be
working from their offices. They have not resigned from the government," Iyad
Jamal Al-Din, a senior member of the group's leadership said.
"This is a warning to the prime minister, who needs to follow the national
reconciliation program," said Jamal Al-Din, warning that the List's ministers
could resign if their demands for reconciliation were not met.
Last Wednesday, Iraq's main Sunni political bloc of the National Concord
Front withdrew its five ministers and deputy prime minister from the
coalition, dealing a blow to the government's claims to represent all Iraqis.
Defense Minister Abdulqader Jassem Mohammad, a political independent, is
the only Sunni left around the cabinet table.
Jamal Al-Din said the Iraqi National List boycott came for much the same
reasons as the Sunni bloc's earlier withdrawal.
Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has plunged into an abyss of
overlapping civil conflicts that have divided its rival religious and ethnic
communities, and left tens of thousands of civilians dead.
The Iraqi National List initially controlled five cabinet seats in
Al-Maliki's government, but justice minister Hashim Al-Shibli has already
resigned. (end)
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