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| Iraq |
| Sunni bloc back in Iraqi parliament |
| 2007-09-09 |
| A small Sunni Arab political bloc has ended its boycott of Iraq's parliament, even as the senior US commander in Iraq says the country's leaders have failed to capitalise on security gains. The Iraqi National Dialogue Front, which has 11 seats in the 275-member legislature, had suspended its participation in June. The party said in a statement on Saturday that it had returned after the government met its demands. "The government has agreed to allocate funds to displaced families ... and it has agreed to delay negotations on the oil law until after Ramadan," it said. The Sunni bloc was the last of several boycotting groups to return to the assembly, although the cabinet of Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, remains shaky after walkouts and resignations by 17 of 40 ministers. Speaking from Amman, Jordan, the Iraqi National Dialogue Front's Saleh al-Mutlaq told Al Jazeera that al-Maliki's government would not be able solve the country's problems. "We need reconciliation, and this government cannot make reconciliation. We need a liberal government and this government is not liberal one, we need a secular government," he said. "Without such a government the violence will continue." The return of the Sunni bloc will be a boost to the Iraqi assembly as it prepares to tackle several key pieces of legislation that Washington sees as benchmarks to measure Iraq's progress towards national unity. |
| Posted by:Fred |