Iraq's
cabinet hit a bump in the road on Monday, when the communications minister
announced his resignation. The minister in question had clashed repeatedly with
the country's prime minister.
Iraq's
communications minister, Mohammed Allawi, quit his post on Monday, blaming the
Shi'ite prime minister for meddling. Allawi is the first minister to resign
from his position since Iraq's government was formed in December 2010.
“I present
my resignation because I have become incapable of working in such an infested
environment," said Allawi in his resignation letter.
The former
communications minister is an adherent of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc in the
country's fractious power-sharing government. Allawi has consistently clashed
with Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Allawi, in
a telephone interview with AFP on Monday, detailed alleged government attempts
to control the appointment and transfer of senior officials. More specifically,
he accused the prime minister of ordering the transfer of several
director-generals in the communications ministry against Allawi's wishes.
“Some of
our DGs who are very truthful, they are working very hard, he [Maliki] asked me
to transfer them back to their previous ministries," Allawi said.
"I
asked to keep them but he refused," Allawi added.
There
exists deep political cleavages in Iraq between Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish
blocs, and the situation has worsened since American troops left the country in
December. Tensions reached boiling point when al-Maliki's government moved to
arrest the vice present and Iraqiya member Tareq al-Hashemi earlier in the
year. Al-Hashemi has since fled to Turkey. The Iraqiya bloc frequently charge
al-Maliki with acting like a dictator. They recently tried to rally a
no-confidence motion against him, which failed.
sej/ccp (Reuters, AFP)
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