postcon
07-18-2007, 04:00 AM
Parliament resumes sessions with Sadrists, IAF and NDF absent
The Iraqi parliament resumed session on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Sheikh Khaled al-Atiya and in the presence of the Sadrist bloc and the absence of parliamentarians from the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) and the Sunni National Dialogue Front (NDF), a parliamentary media source said.
The parliament is scheduled to discuss a number of bills, including the draft laws on investment and the organization of provinces not affiliated to a region, the source, who requested his name not be mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Ending its suspended membership of the Iraqi parliament, the Sadrist bloc attended Tuesday's session after an agreement was reached to form a committee to supervise the reconstruction of the two Shiite shrines in Samarra that were destroyed by repeated attacks.
"The suspension was terminated after the bloc's demands were approved during a parliamentary session," the bloc's chief Nassar Rubaie said earlier today.
According to al-Rubaie, the demands put forward by the Sadrists were strengthening the Iraqi government's role and reconstructing Samarra's al-Askari shrines.
The Sadrist bloc, which holds 30 seats in the 275-member Iraqi parliament within the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), the largest bloc with 115 seats, suspended its parliamentary participation in protest against the bombing attacks that targeted the minarets of the two tombs of al-Askari Imams in Samarra in mid-June.
Meanwhile, parliamentary sources revealed that the IAF and NDF are still boycotting the parliament's sessions.
In a telephone conversation with VOI, a spokesman for the IAF, Saleem al-Juburi said, "Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani will not preside over Tuesday's session and the front will not attend because discussions are not over yet." Al-Juburi also indicated that he expects the front to return to the parliament soon, when all disagreements are settled.
The parliament earlier gave al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Muslim, a long vacation to end a dispute that erupted after al-Mashhadani's bodyguards assaulted MP Firyad Omar from the UIC without his interference.
Both the IAF and the NDF rejected the decision and boycotted parliamentary sessions in protest.
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/19616
The Iraqi parliament resumed session on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Sheikh Khaled al-Atiya and in the presence of the Sadrist bloc and the absence of parliamentarians from the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) and the Sunni National Dialogue Front (NDF), a parliamentary media source said.
The parliament is scheduled to discuss a number of bills, including the draft laws on investment and the organization of provinces not affiliated to a region, the source, who requested his name not be mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Ending its suspended membership of the Iraqi parliament, the Sadrist bloc attended Tuesday's session after an agreement was reached to form a committee to supervise the reconstruction of the two Shiite shrines in Samarra that were destroyed by repeated attacks.
"The suspension was terminated after the bloc's demands were approved during a parliamentary session," the bloc's chief Nassar Rubaie said earlier today.
According to al-Rubaie, the demands put forward by the Sadrists were strengthening the Iraqi government's role and reconstructing Samarra's al-Askari shrines.
The Sadrist bloc, which holds 30 seats in the 275-member Iraqi parliament within the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), the largest bloc with 115 seats, suspended its parliamentary participation in protest against the bombing attacks that targeted the minarets of the two tombs of al-Askari Imams in Samarra in mid-June.
Meanwhile, parliamentary sources revealed that the IAF and NDF are still boycotting the parliament's sessions.
In a telephone conversation with VOI, a spokesman for the IAF, Saleem al-Juburi said, "Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani will not preside over Tuesday's session and the front will not attend because discussions are not over yet." Al-Juburi also indicated that he expects the front to return to the parliament soon, when all disagreements are settled.
The parliament earlier gave al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Muslim, a long vacation to end a dispute that erupted after al-Mashhadani's bodyguards assaulted MP Firyad Omar from the UIC without his interference.
Both the IAF and the NDF rejected the decision and boycotted parliamentary sessions in protest.
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/19616