On the agreement to convene the Iraqi parliament
Iraq, Politics, 3/10/2006

Leaders of the Iraqi political blocs in the parliament agreed initially to convene the first session of the elected parliament which was elected in December 2005 by the fall of Sunday, March 12, which is the last constitutional grace period for convening it.

However, the United Iraqi Coalition has not settled its views on attending the session or not.

This agreement came after talks held by leaders of the bloc in the headquarters of the Iraqi President Jalal al-Talibani. A high ranking source in the Shiite coalition said talking about the meeting with Talibani and the higher judicial commission that "all agreed that according to the constitution the parliament has to meet on Sunday."

The source expressed its conviction that the coalition will agree on the meeting of the parliament on Sunday, noting that meetings are held inside the coalition in order to take a decision to that effect. Without members of the Shiite coalition it will be difficult for the parliament to bring enough members for taking any decision.

However, a New York Times report (NYTimes.com) said today that President Talibani agreed to delay the Sunday meeting till next Sunday, the 19th of March.

The opening of the parliament was suspended waiting for a settlement regarding the issue of re-assigning by the Shiite coalition for Ibrahim al-Jafaari to lead the new government as the nomination of Jaafari is opposed by each of the Kurdistani coalition and the Sunni al-Wifaq front and the Iraqi List led by Eyad Allawi with all of them demanding the nomination of a different candidate than Jaafari.

This difference postpones the formation of the permanent government which is presumed to work for putting an end to the deteriorated security conditions.

Previous Stories:
  Deteriorated Iraqi security conditions, interior ministry suspected   (3/9/2006)
  Iraqi parliament to have it first meeting   (3/9/2006)
  2,000 Iraqi women kidnapped, worse off women conditions   (3/9/2006)

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