Al-Sadr Wants Ministers Suspended (for Kirkuk deal)

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Al-Sadr Wants Ministers Suspended

By BASSEM MROUE
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 5, 2007; 8:01 PM

BAGHDAD -- Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has asked the prime minister to
suspend two Cabinet ministers from his bloc because they backed a plan that likely
will turn the oil-rich city of Kirkuk over to Kurdish control, a parliament member
said Thursday.

Saleh al-Aujaili, the Sadr bloc legislator, said the cleric had asked Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki to hold the seats open for his block when he reshuffles his cabinet,
a moved that has been promised for weeks.

Health Minister Ali al-Shammari and Agriculture Minister Yarrub Nazim, both members
of the Sadrist movement, were among Cabinet ministers who agreed last week to a
plan that would resettle Arabs from Kirkuk who had been moved into the city during
Saddam Hussein's Baath party rule, the legislator said.

-snip-

It was not clear whether al-Sadr was moving to cleanse the organization of those
he suspects of disloyalty to his anti-American stand, but two members of parliament
from his bloc were ejected from the organization because they did not leave a
luncheon Monday when U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus arrived, al-Aujaili
said on Wednesday.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040501873.html