ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi parliament’s leading Sunni bloc on Tuesday affirmed confidence in the legislative body’s Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, urging MPs to vote against vacating his post as he prepares to submit his resignation letter in the legislature’s first session after intra-Shiite clashes.
The Sovereignty Alliance in a statement said it stands by Halbousi as parliament speaker and called “on political parties and independent MPs to reject his resignation request," while hailing his position in straying the country away from “several woes.”
The Iraqi parliament will convene on Wednesday in its first session since June 23. Parliament meetings were suspended due to concerning protests in Baghdad when supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the legislature building and demanded the dissolution of parliament and early elections amid suffocating political unrest in the country.
The parliament's agenda includes voting on Halbousi's resignation, however, many expect the vote to fail.
"We do not expect Halbousi's resignation to be accepted," Shakhawan Abdullah, second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw on Monday.
Halbousi's decision to call quits comes as the main Kurdish, Sunni, and pro-Iran Shite political blocs are expected to announce the formation of a new coalition with Iraq approaching a staggering one year without a permanent cabinet.
The new coalition, expected to be titled Running the State Coalition, does not include the Sadrist Movement, mounting fears that protests once again will ensue in the Iraqi capital by Sadrist loyalists due to dissatisfaction with Iraq's political system.
The exclusion of Sadrists from the coalition is due to their refusal to join the dialogues and meetings which resulted in its formation, according to Hisham al-Rikabi, media director of former Iraqi prime minister and Sadr rival Nouri al-Maliki.
"We are firmly pushing to prevent any friction or escalation that damages civil peace and exposes the people and the state institutions to any dangers," the Sunni alliance stated, calling for "an honest and serious national dialogue that ends the political blockage."
Iraq is in the midst of an unprecedented political impasse and political disagreements between the country's various parties have prevented the parliament from forming Iraq's next cabinet nearly a year after early elections were held in October.
