Iraq's time of reckoning.

From GulfNews:

Baghdad: In the latest blow to Nouri Al Maliki's government, four secularist ministers withdrew from Cabinet meetings on Tuesday, drastically reducing the chances of the Iraqi government's survival.


The ministers - from a non-sectarian party loyal to former prime minister Eyad Allawi - brought to 17 the number of ministers who have walked out, tendered their resignations or withdrawn from Cabinet meetings, which is nearly half of the Cabinet.


The current crisis makes the Nouri Al Maliki government's survival extremely difficult in its current form, analysts said. Its survival now hinges on reaching a new deal with Sunni ministers to rejoin the government, they said.

"Al Maliki has two choices: either restructure the Iraqi government for his new political front or accept calling early parliamentary elections which may qualify him to lead a new and more powerful era," Hussain Al Jaf, a researcher in Iraqi affairs, told Gulf News.


"The government cannot survive all these defections," said Joost Hiltermann, the chief Iraq expert at the International Crisis Group think tank, after the secular Iraqi National List ministers boycotted Cabinet yesterday.


"Frankly, even with everyone in, there was total paralysis of government. Everyone is waiting for the top leadership to meet and cut a different kind of deal," he said.
Last Wednesday, Iraq's main Sunni political bloc, the National Concord Front withdrew its five ministers and its deputy prime minister from Al Maliki's ruling coalition, dealing a blow to the government's claims to represent all Iraqis.


Defence Minister Abdul Qader Mohammad Jassem, a political independent, is the only Sunni Arab remaining in the Cabinet.


Al Maliki has severely flayed the withdrawal of six Sunni politicians. In an interview with Iran's state television channel Al Alam, he accused them of showing "irresponsibility" and a "lack of sincerity".