 Sunni Muslim politicians dropped their demand today to include former members of Saddam Hussein's party in Iraq's new Cabinet in a bid to get more ministries. The Sunni minority is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency and many blame the impasse in forming a new government for a resurgence in violence.
| The Sunni minority is believed on pretty empirical evidence to be the backbone of the insurgency, supplying most of the cannon fodder and some of the leadership. |
The development comes as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, joined by other top U.S. officials, is trying to persuade politicians from the Shiite majority and their Kurdish allies to wrap up negotiations to form a new government. As leaders of Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions continued their backroom wheeling and dealing, Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari again put off his long-promised Cabinet announcement.
The National Dialogue Council, a coalition of 10 Sunni factions, initially requested 16 Cabinet seats. It submitted a list of candidates Sunday that included former members of Hussein's Baath Party, said Jawad al-Maliki, a senior member of al-Jaafari's United Iraqi Alliance. But when that was rejected, they dropped the demand, he told reporters.
Alliance members, who control 148 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, refuse to give any top posts to members of the party that carried out Hussein's brutal suppression of the Shiites and Kurds.
| With damned good reason, I'd say. |
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