In an unprecedented move to confront the Sunni demonstrations, which have now been going on for nearly 100 days, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took a series of decisions regarding former leaders of the Baath Party, allowing Baath Party division heads to hold government posts, and addressing the issue of Fedayeen Saddam’s militia.

Fedayeen Saddam is a very powerful and rigorous paramilitary group, formed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the mid-1990s. It was popular in nature and consisted of youth loyal to the head of the former Iraqi regime. As for the unit members, they were senior officials in the Baath Party, which was dissolved as US troops entered the country and the party’s regime fell.

Maliki was at a critical point in the past months. His government has been on the brink of collapse, as his most important Sunni and Kurdish partners and a Shiite faction represented by Muqtada al-Sadr movement withdrew. The recent crisis was similar to a difficult test designed to see the range of Maliki’s power and ability to maneuver.

The Iraqi government approved on April 7 the draft law amending the accountability and justice law and penal code articles on the secret informant. The Iraqiya bloc, led by the prominent Sunni leader Saleh al-Mutlaq, said that the decision “is a step in the right direction” in order to fulfill the protesters' demands. It also talked about an agreement to end the issue of the Accountability and Justice Commission, which handles the de-Baathification of former members within 18 months after the law is passed.