Dozens of Sunni Arab legislators ended their five-week boycott of Parliament on Thursday, returning after what appeared to be a deal with Shiite lawmakers allowing Mahmoud Mashhadani, the volatile Sunni Parliament speaker, to return to his job and then resign, potentially with a sizable pension and retirement benefits.
In theory, the return to Parliament of 44 members of the main Sunni political bloc, coming days after lawmakers loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr ended their own boycott, will make it easier for lawmakers to reach a quorum and pass legislation.
But lawmakers remain deeply divided over every major legislative question, including whether to allow former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to hold positions of power and the distribution of wealth from Iraq’s vast oil fields. Lawmakers also plan to take a monthlong holiday in August.
Still, six cabinet ministers from the main Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Consensus Front, continue to boycott meetings to protest the handling of accusations that one of the six, Culture Minister Asad al-Hashimi, masterminded the attempted assassination of another politician. Six other ministers from Mr. Sadr’s bloc have also left the cabinet.
Mr. Mashhadani was ousted from the speaker’s job in June after he and his guards were accused of a series of physical assaults on legislators.
On Thursday, Mr. Mashhadani sat in the speaker’s chair for the first time in a month. But members of his party said they expected him to step down and be replaced by another Sunni Arab lawmaker.
Some lawmakers said Sunnis and Shiites had reached a deal built around coming legislation that would allow Mr. Mashhadani and any other Parliament member who resigned to receive monthly retirement payments equal to 80 percent of their current monthly salary and benefits.
“This law was designed to solve the Mashhadani resignation,” said Shatha al-Mussawi, a lawmaker and member of the dominant Shiite political coalition, referring to pension legislation now under debate.
Some legislators are paid the equivalent of $13,000 to $16,000 per month to cover their wages and also salaries for guards and related costs. According to one senior aide in Parliament, legislation was also introduced a few months ago that would pay the speaker more than the equivalent of $30,000 monthly to cover the same costs.
Salim Abdullah, an official in the Iraqi Consensus Front, said in an interview that he believed that Mr. Mashhadani would want to step down in the near future and that Sunni officials would hold discussions during the next two weeks about the speaker’s job.
Speaker Calls for Sunni Party to End Boycott Iraqi Speaker Asks National Dialogue Front to Return to Parliament
On Thursday, the newly returned speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Dr. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, postponed the chamber's next session for two days, while calling for the a major Sunni political party to end its boycott of Iraqi political process, Voices of Iraq reports. Mashhadani called upon the Sunni National Dialogue Front to end suspension of its membership in parliament and return as soon as possible. Todays session witnessed the presence of the Tawafuq Front and the return of Speaker al-Mashhadani after more than a month’s boycott.
Representatives of parliamentary blocs expressed their relief at the return of the Sadrist and Tawafuq blocs and their resuming attendance of parliament sessions. Dr. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, called upon the National Dialogue Front to end suspension of its membership in parliament and return as soon as possible. “We call upon our brothers in the National Dialogue Front to attend parliament sessions and end their suspension, the crisis is over, and their presence in parliament is essential” Mashhadani addressed the session.
The National Dialogue Front boycotted, last month, parliament sessions in solidarity with Tawafuq Bloc which suspended its membership of parliament in protest at the issuing of an arrest warrant against Culture Minister, a Tawafuq member, and demanded also the return of the Speaker to his office after legislators voted to give al-Mashhadani a long vacation. The Sadrist Bloc returned to Parliament on Tuesday, after an agreement was reached on its demands concerning the reconstruction of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, which was bombed for the second time in June.
The National Dialogue Front, led by MP Saleh al-Mutlak, holds 11 seats in the Iraqi National Assembly.
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