Political infighting disrupts Iraqi parliament

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Iyad Allawi walked out of a meeting of Iraq’s parliament on Tuesday after angry scenes erupted, with assembly members berating Shiite and Kurdish leaders for failing to agree on a government.

The speaker of parliament ordered journalists to leave and declared the meeting would be held in secret, after politicians — one of them a leading member of Allawi’s bloc — denounced a failure to reach agreement two months after the historic Jan. 30 polls. 

Heading into their second-ever National Assembly session Tuesday, negotiators struggled over the issue of bringing Sunni Arabs into the government, a step officials hope will quell the Sunni-led insurgency.

A meeting late Monday between Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni representatives failed to come up with a Sunni Arab candidate that legislators promised would be announced during Tuesday’s assembly session.

Assembly's start stalled
The session’s start was delayed Tuesday as officials held frantic meetings aimed at reaching agreement.

The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance’s leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and Kurdish politician Barham Saleh met with interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab whom Alliance and Kurdish members seem to be trying to persuade to accept the parliament speaker position.

Al-Yawer had earlier turned down the post, asking to be one of two Iraqi vice presidents instead.

Alliance negotiators said the Sunnis promised to agree on a name for the parliament speaker, but critics of the process say the Sunni Arab candidates being discussed for government posts have no influence on the insurgency and their participation is unlikely to affect it.

“If they cannot name someone, then the Alliance and the Kurds will choose the speaker,” said Alliance negotiator Abdul-Karim al-Anz. “The Sunni community doesn’t have a united position.”

New attacks, kidnappings
Meantime, explosions were heard in Baghdad early Tuesday, where officials had warned residents to prepare for stepped up insurgent attacks. During the first National Assembly meeting, on March 16, militants lobbed mortar rounds at the heavily fortified Green Zone in the city’s center, where lawmakers held their meeting.

Violence also continued in the rest of the country, with a car bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk injuring a local Kurdish government official and more than a dozen others, police said.

Three Romanian journalists also were kidnapped in Iraq, the television station employing two of the journalists said Tuesday. The Romanian Embassy in Baghdad confirmed the three were missing but refused to give more information. Romania has about 800 troops in Iraq.

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