BAGHDAD: Iraq's political factions Thursday took a first step to end its eight-month impasse but a meeting of MPs fell into acrimony amid claims a power-sharing deal made a day earlier had already been violated. A session where lawmakers chose a new parliamentary speaker and re-elected President Jalal Talabani, who subsequently pledged to nominate Nuri Al-Maliki as the country's prime minister, was overshadowed by a dispute which prompted a major Sunni-backed bloc to storm out of the chamber. Immediately following the selection of Osama Al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab, as speaker, the Iraqiya bloc to which he belongs began complaining that the deal they had signed was not being honored. Specifically, Iraqiya had called for three of their lawmakers, barred for their alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath party, to be reinstated before voting for a president. When their demands were not met, some 60 MPs left the chamber. “We boycotted the session because we showed good intentions to others, but they stabbed us in the back,” Saleh Al-Mutlak, one of the trio Iraqiya wanted reinstated, said. “We will not return without international guarantees,” he added. The power-sharing deal, clinched after three days of intense talks, stipulated that a Sunni Arab hold the post of speaker, and that Talabani and Al-Maliki retain their posts. The agreement also established a statutory body to oversee security as a sop to former premier Iyad Allawi, who had held out for months to take the job from Al-Maliki after his Iraqiya bloc narrowly won the most seats in the March 7 polls. But after Nujaifi was named speaker, Iraqiya lawmakers walked out of parliament and after some confusion, the remaining MPs began voting to reelect Talabani. Iraqiya has said its participation hinged on four conditions: a bill forming the security body; examination by a committee of cases against political detainees; the codifying of the power-sharing deal; and annulling bans against three Iraqiya members for their alleged ties to Baath party. It said it “hoped it would not be obliged to change its decision to participate in the political process if these conditions are not met.” During the coalition talks, Allawi had accused Iran of putting unwarranted pressure on Iraqi leaders to keep the incumbent in office, while Al-Maliki in turn accused the ex-premier of pandering to Sunni Arab states. – Agence France
