IRAQ:SIX MINISTERS from the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni parliamentary bloc, rejoined Iraq's Shia-Kurdish coalition on Saturday, broadening the government's narrow base and boosting its prospects for achieving a degree of reconciliation with Sunnis.
A spokesman for the front, Selim al-Jabouri, said its return was "a real step forward for political reform". While most of the front's appointees are new faces, former minister of state Rafie al-Issawi will be deputy premier for security affairs. Others will hold the portfolios of culture, communications, women's affairs, higher education, and the state ministry for foreign affairs.
The Iraqi Accordance Front left the cabinet last August in protest against the domination of the government and security apparatus by pro-Iranian Shia factions with a sectarian agenda.
These factions, the Dawa party of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, sidelined Sunni ministers and made Sunni insurgents the primary targets of security operations. Thousands of Sunnis were rounded up and detained.
Under pressure from the US, the government adopted measures demanded by the front.
In February, parliament passed an amnesty law that led to the release of many Sunni detainees and in March Mr al-Maliki personally led a crackdown on the Mahdi army militia loyal to dissident Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a major Sunni demand.
The front has also been encouraged to re-engage by improvements in security and by the need to boost its political standing ahead of provincial elections set for October.
The front is being challenged in majority Sunni provinces by parties based on tribal "Awakening Councils", local levees which have co-operated with US forces in the battle against al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Its brutal attacks on civilians of all sects prompted Sunnis, many of whom had enrolled in the resistance, to turn against al-Qaeda.
Now that al-Qaeda's activities have been curbed, the "Awakening Councils" seek to secure political power on both provincial and national levels at the expense of the Accordance Front and its main component, the Iraqi Islamic Party.
Parliament also appointed Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council members to replace four ministers from the Sadrist bloc which pulled out of the government more than a year ago in protest at Mr al-Maliki's refusal to secure a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
However, under Sadrist and Sunni pressure he has shifted ground. He agreed with the US last week to fix a "general time horizon" for a series of troop draw-downs which would reduce the US presence in Iraq. Mr al-Maliki appeared to go further in a weekend interview in the German magazine Der Spiegelby agreeing with a 16-month timetable for withdrawal suggested by US presidential candidate Barak Obama.
