BAGHDAD, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's largest Sunni
political bloc on Wednesday said that it has pulled out from Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki's government over his failure to meet their demands.
"The Iraqi Accordance Front announces its withdrawal
from Nuri al-Maliki's government," Rafie al-Issawi, a key member of the front
told reporters in Baghdad.
He said that the front's six cabinet ministers would
resign later in the day.
"The government continued its arrogance and has shut
the door for any reforms," he said.
Last week, the Sunni Arab front gave Maliki's
government a week of suspension to meet its demands which included a pardon for
security detainees who are not charged with crimes, disband militias, give the
front real participation in making decisions and a firm commitment to human
rights.
"We have decided to withdraw from the government
after it ignored our demands, especially, the pardon for security detainees not
charged with crimes," Ibrahim Danoon, a front member told Xinhua.
Danoon held Maliki the responsibility for the
possible deterioration of political process in the war-torn country.
Earlier, officials in Maliki's government said that
the Sunni front was trying to blackmail Maliki.
The bloc's decision would not include withdrawal for
its 44 lawmakers from the 275-seat parliament.
On Tuesday, Iraq's Kurdish president Jalal Talabani
met top Sunni Arab politicians in a bid to save the Shiite-dominated government
from possible collapse.
Talabani also warned of "negative consequences" on
the country's national unity government if the Sunni ministers withdraw from the
government.
In April, five more cabinet ministers loyal to
radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had also quit the government to protest
al-Maliki's reluctance to announce a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces
from Iraq.
