Via the AP: 5 more ministers boycott Iraqi Cabinet

Five Cabinet ministers loyal to Iraq’s first post-Saddam Hussein leader will boycott government meetings, further deepening the political crisis that threatens to swamp the administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, two lawmakers said Monday.

The boycott of Iraqiya List ministers loyal to former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi leaves the government, at least temporarily, with no Sunni participants. It was a deep blow to al-Maliki’s attempt to craft reconciliation among the country’s majority Shiites and minority Sunnis and Kurds.

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The boycott raises to 17 the number of government ministers who have either suspended membership or quit this year.

Given the clear need for political progress, the ongoing inability of the cabinet to effectively function is a problem.

Meanwhile, the State Department has their rose-colored glasses fully deployed:

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States continues to support the al-Maliki government, although he did not give the kind of enthusiastic endorsement that President Bush and his aides once did.

“There’s a very healthy political debate that is going on in Iraq, and that is good,” McCormack said.

“What you want to have is an Iraqi government that is working on behalf of the Iraqi people and that is producing results for the Iraqi people. That is what the Iraqi people expect, and it’s going to be for them to make the judgments about whether or not that government is performing.”

Sounds good, anyway.