Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi says resignation due to prime minister’s failure to stop interference in communications ministry.

Iraq’s communications minister has quit his post due to continued “political interference” in his ministry.

Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi told the AFP news agency that he resigned on Monday after Nouri al-Maliki, the country’s prime minister, failed to meet his demands to put an end to “meddling”.

Allawi’s decision to step down marks the first ministerial resignation since Iraq’s national unity government was formed in late 2010.

“I required certain conditions from the prime minister to stop the political interference in my ministry,” he said, referring to demands he issued in July.

“I told him, either you fulfill those conditions or accept my resignation. He decided after one month to accept my resignation.”

Allawi is a member of the mostly Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc that attempted earlier this year to withdraw confidence from Maliki’s government.

Last year, electricity minister Raad Shallal al-Ani was fired for signing off on $1.7bn in allegedly improper contracts.