Sunni’s Return to Iraq Parliament After Hiatus

Iraqiya MPs to end boycott, easing crisis. Sunni’s Return to Iraq Parliament After Hiatus

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Baghdad: A secular bloc which won the most seats in Iraq’s March 2010 vote will end a boycott of parliament that it began in mid-December, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

“Iraqiya decided its deputies would return for parliament meetings,” Maysoon al-Damluji told a news conference after a gathering of Iraqiya leaders and MPs.

The meeting was attended by Iraqiya leaders including former premier Iyad Allawi, deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlak, parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, and the finance minister, Rafa al-Essawi.

“The deputies of the Iraqiya list will return back to participate in the meetings of parliament next Tuesday. That’s what we decided today,” MP Aytab al-Duri told reporters.

The decision has not, however, been taken to end a boycott of cabinet sessions by Iraqiya ministers, according to Duri, who said “that will be the next step.”

A row erupted over a month ago between the Shiite-led government and the Iraqiya bloc as authorities charged Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni and Iraqiya member, with running a death squad.

Iraqiya began a boycott of parliament and cabinet to protest what it charged was Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s centralisation of power, and it has since called for Maliki to respect a power-sharing deal or quit.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi while Maliki, a Shiite, has said his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlak should be sacked after the latter said the premier was “worse than Saddam Hussein”.
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