Sunni Bloc Returns To Cabinet.

The Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), the largest Sunni Arab block in parliament known as Tawafuq, on April 24 said it had agreed to return to Maliki's cabinet after a nine-month boycott, citing a recently passed amnesty law and the government's crackdown on Shi'ite militias as reasons for the move. This represents a major political victory for Maliki.

The Sunni leaders said the government had done enough to address their concerns that they had decided to end their boycott. IAF leader Adnan al-Duleimi said: "Our conditions were very clear, and the government achieved some of them". He said the achievements included "the general amnesty, chasing down the [Iran-infiltrated Shi'ite] militias and disbanding them and curbing the outlaws".

The recently passed amnesty law has led to the release of many Sunni prisoners, encouraging Sunni parties that the government is serious about enforcing it. And the attacks on JaM and other rogue Shi'ite militias have begun to assuage long-standing complaints that only Sunni groups blamed for the insurgency have been the targets of US and Iraqi security forces.

Iyad al-Samarra'i, deputy general-Secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), the largest party in the IAF, said exactly which ministries will be given to which Sunni politicians was under negotiation. Among those under consideration are the ministries of culture, planning, higher education and women's affairs as well as the state ministry for foreign affairs. The details are complicated because Planning Minister Ali Baban, who heads the most powerful of those posts, was an IAF member but left it in order to stay in the cabinet after the boycott began. Samarra'i said the most likely arrangement was that Baban would remain head of the planning ministry and another ministry would be given to the Sunnis. The list of names the IAF would nominate for the ministries was being negotiated within the bloc.

Maliki on April 26 said the situation in the oil-rich south now was stable and that the government was continuing "to pursue all outlaws". His crack-down also covered Baghdad's Shi'ite areas including the huge slum of Sadr City, a stronghold of JaM, and others loyal to Sadr.