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Iraqi Parliament Speaker Urged to Resign
11.6.2007
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June
11, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraqi legislators called Sunday for
the parliamentary speaker to step down after an
argument broke out between him and another lawmaker.
The behavior of speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a
Sunni Arab, has repeatedly embarrassed the
government's Sunni Arab partners and Shiite Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition government
would welcome his removal.
Last year, al-Mashhadani survived a campaign by
Shiite and Kurdish politicians to remove him after
he said Iraqis who killed American troops should be
celebrated as heroes. Last month, he slapped a
fellow Sunni lawmaker in the face and called him
``scum'' at the end of a raucous session.
Al-Mashhadani's argument with Firyad Mohammed Omar,
a Turkoman Shiite lawmaker, took place outside the
parliamentary chamber and dominated a session of the
275-member legislature that followed. Lawmakers said
it was over the right of way in a corridor and that
it started when Omar complained about the
heavy-handedness of the speaker's guards.
No vote was taken on al-Mashhadani's future, but
lawmakers from the parliament's major blocs gave him
the choice of resigning or going on indefinite
leave.
Al-Mashhadani, 59, did not attend the closed
session, which was chaired by his Shiite deputy,
said lawmakers who attended the deliberations. They
spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the subject.
The decision was relayed to him by members from the
Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni Arab group
in parliament, of which al-Mashhadani is a member,
the lawmakers said.
Al-Mashhadani, a former physician jailed by Saddam
Hussein for his political activity, was expected to
announce his decision on Monday, the lawmakers said.
If he refuses to resign or take leave, legislators
could vote him out of the speaker's chair. But he
would continue to retain his parliamentary seat.
AP
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