Iraq’s finance minister resigns over political crisis

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Two government officials say that Iraq’s finance minister has resigned over the country’s worst political crisis in years. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Finance Minister Ali Allawi resigned during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday to protest the political conditions. They said Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar will become acting finance minister. Allawi’s decision came weeks after members of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s parliamentary bloc resigned from parliament and his supporters stormed the parliament building in Baghdad. Al-Sadr later demanded that parliament be dissolved and early elections held. Al-Sadr won the largest share of seats in the election last October but failed to form a majority government.