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Iraqi lawmakers reject US pressure on
holiday plans
6.5.2007
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May 6, 2007
BAGHDAD,-- Iraqi lawmakers said Saturday that
they might yet cut short their planned summer recess
in order to pass key laws, but warned the United
States not to push them to do so.
Some members of parliament said privately that
pressure from Washington might even persuade some
anti-American parties to insist on taking the
two-month break as planned, as a gesture of
defiance.
"This is unnecessary interference," said Kurdish
legislator Mahmud Othman. "Parliament has a sense of
responsibility. If they find there is a need to
legislate laws urgently they will not go on leave.
"This American interference is strange and could
have negative results."
Some US politicians have angrily insisted that the
Iraqi parliament cancel a recess due in August and
September in order to have more time to pass bills
designed to aid war-torn Iraq's quest for national
reconciliation.
The Iraqi assembly is due to debate a law to
rehabilitate former members of ousted dictator
Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party and allow them
to return to public life, and has a draft of a bill
on sharing national oil revenues.
At the White House on Friday, national security
spokesman Gordon Johndroe noted that the US
Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, had raised
Washington's objection to a two-month recess with
Maliki.
"US officials, including Ambassador Crocker, have
said this may send the wrong signal not only to the
international community but to the Iraqi people," he
told reporters.
No decision on the recess has been taken, Iraqi
lawmakers said, but they held out the possibility of
extending the legislative session if voices in
Washington stopped pushing for it.
"We asked for the holiday to be cancelled before the
Americans spoke, to pass an abundance of laws. We
must finish them by the end of the year," said
Nassar al-Rubaie, a member of radical cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr's bloc.
First deputy speaker Khalid al-Attiya, a member of
the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, said: "The summer holiday is an internal
affair. The council is the body to decide whether to
go on leave or not.
"The internal rules stipulate a holiday, but there
are a host of laws that have to be finished during
this legislative term," he added.
"If we do not finish them in time, the council may
shorten or cancel the holiday as it did in the
winter term when the budget was in discussion and
had to be finalised. The council cut the holiday
from one month from two."
Wael Abdul-Latif a judge and lawmaker from the
secular Iraqi List party, said: "If there are laws
important for the country for us to debate we may
not enjoy a holiday.
"The people elected us to work 24 hours per day. It
is improper that America tells us to work for the
interests of our country. We must do so anyway."
There has been pressure from politicians in
Washington to tie future military and financial
assistance to Iraq to its government meeting certain
political "benchmarks" to prove that it is committed
to finding peace.
AFP
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