Iraq’s Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi suspended his participation in the cabinet, citing disarray in government ministries in OPEC’s second-biggest supplier. Abdul Mahdi said in a letter posted on his Facebook page that he assigned his duties to Deputy Oil Minister Fayyad Al-Nima. Abdul Mahdi said he was suspending his duties until parliament votes on a resignation letter he submitted last year. The letter, which wasn’t accepted at the time, said Abdul Mahdi was resigning to enable the prime minister to make necessary reforms and fight corruption. He attributed his decision to an “atmosphere of uncertainty and disarray dominating the government ministries ahead of a partial or complete cabinet change.” Abdul Mahdi’s decision is related to a reported plan by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to reorganize his cabinet, as well as to pressures from fellow Shiite Muslim leaders including cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, said Richard Mallinson, a London-based analyst at […]