RAMADI: Iraq’s finance minister Rafa al-Essawi announced his resignation on Thursday before scores of demonstrators who were staging anti-government protest in the western area of Baghdad, Ramadi.
“I am with you, I am your son, and I announce today… that I am presenting my resignation from the Iraqi government, and I will not return to this government,” said a leading Sunni Essawi in front of thousands of protesters, after more than two months of demonstrations demanding an end to marginalisation of their minority sect.
The country’s precarious sectarian balance has come under growing strain as Iraq Sunnis vent frustrations that have built up since the US-led invasion of 2003 overthrew Saddam Hussein and empowered the majority Shia community through the ballot box.
The demonstrations in the country’s Sunni heartland are fuelling concerns the increasingly sectarian conflict in neighbouring Syria will push Iraq back towards the bloody Sunni-Shia strife of 2006-2007.
