Bloc threatens to leave Iraq government

Last Modified: 01 Aug 2007
By: Jonathan Miller

The Iraq government is facing its biggest political crisis taking power.

The country's main Sunni Arab political bloc is withdrawing from the ruling coalition.

The Accordance Front wanted a greater say in security matters, and accused the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of failing to consult it on key issues.

Accordance Front spokesman Rafei Issawi said: "The government was still ... closing the door on reforms which are needed to save Iraq."

But Iraq Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a member of the Sunni bloc, said the Front is still open to negotiation.

He said: "The doors are still open on all options, including returning to government, if they introduce reforms."

One of Iraq's deputy prime ministers, Kurd Barham Salih, said the Sunni bloc's withdrawal was the most serious political crisis yet faced by Mr Maliki's government.

The other deputy prime minister Salam al-Zobaie and five ministers are expected to resign.

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political bloc, one of the biggest in parliament, has already withdrawn over the Prime Minister's refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.

The United States has been putting pressure on the coalition to bring the minority Sunnis more closely into the political process, seen as key to quelling the sectarian violence.

Meanwhile, 20 people were killed and 40 wounded in a busy square in the Karradah district when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a popular ice cream parlour.

Later, 12 more were killed as they queued at a petrol station, when a truck bomb rammed a line of cars.