Najaf: The political movement loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr said on Saturday it had withdrawn from Iraq's ruling Shiite Alliance.
The move leaves Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's coalition with around half the seats in parliament, although it could survive with the support of a handful of independent lawmakers.
"There has been no positive response from the Shiite Alliance following which the political committee in the Al Sadr movement is announcing its withdrawal from the Shiite bloc," Liwa Smesim, head of the political committee of the Al Sadr group, said at a press conference in Najaf.
The new blow to the faltering political process came as Al Sadr MP Gufran Sa'ad said the movement was no longer being consulted about key decisions by the Al Maliki government. "There are reasons for our withdrawal from the Shiite alliance. The alliance has been taking decisions single-handedly without reverting to the member blocs," Sa'ad said.
The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) initially comprised four key Shiite factions - the Al Sadr group, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), the Dawa party and the Fadhila party - and held 130 of the 275 seats in parliament. However, the number dropped to 115 when the Fadhila party pulled out in March. The Al Sadr bloc has 32 seats in parliament.
Al Sadr officials said last week they were considering withdrawing from the bloc because the SIIC and Prime Minister Al Maliki's Dawa party had formed another alliance with two Kurdish groups. "On the one hand they are taking decisions in the bloc, but on the other hand they are plotting another alliance," said one official.
Under pressure from Washington to bridge the sectarian divide, Al Maliki and leaders of his party on August 27 squeezed out a broadbrush deal with two Kurdish groups and SIIC.
They agreed to ease restrictions on former members of Saddam's Baath party taking up government jobs, to hold provincial elections - a key demand of Washington - and to help the security forces to rein in sectarian unrest.
The Al Sadr group has already withdrawn its six ministers from Al Maliki's government, saying Baghdad had failed to provide basic services to the people. Yesterday, a top party official said they were now planning to negotiate with the Fadhila party for a possible "future together".
Al Maliki has said he will announce a cabinet reshuffle but has so far not been able to fill the vacant seats left by the Sunni and Shiite ministers. He is currently running the government with 23 ministers out of an original 40. The decision to pull out of the Shiite alliance will paralyse Al Maliki further, said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman.
Gates: Troops can be reduced by 100,000
The US defence secretary says he hopes US troop levels in Iraq can be cut to 100,000 by the end of next year, well beyond the cuts President George W. Bush has approved.
Stressing that he was not expressing an administration plan but only his hopes, Robert Gates said it was possible that conditions in Iraq would improve enough to merit much deeper troop cuts than currently are scheduled for 2008.
Asked at a news conference whether he was suggesting that the current level of about 169,000 US troops might be lowered to about 100,000 by the end of next year, Gates replied: "That would be the math."
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10154029.html
2 comments:
Progress being made? Maliki government falling apart and loosing support is what it looks like.
We hear all this talk about when and how our troops will withdraw from Iraq. Al Sadr is doing what he has to so Maliki will pay attention to him. Look for the Iran Religious leader to bring these two together. The Iraq government will get the help it needs from their friends and brothers. The spin the US is doing is just for the public. Now we will see Iran/Syria/Turkey move in to help Iraq and tell the US to leave at once.
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