Iraq’s Sunni-backed Lawmakers Return To Parliament

Last updated on: January 31, 2012 at 7:27 am by

Iraq’s Sunni-backed Lawmakers Return To Parliament 2012-01-31T07:27:34-07:00

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s parliament reconvened on Tuesday as Sunni-backed lawmakers ended their boycott to protest alleged persecution of Sunni officials, a development that could restore some stability to the turbulent political processes in the war-ravaged country.

The Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc had banned lawmakers and government ministers from parliament and Cabinet sessions last month after the Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on terrorism charges.

The boycott brought government work to a standstill and plunged the country into a political crisis just days after the U.S. completed its military withdrawal in December. The sectarian fight in the Shiite-led government has been accompanied by a surge in attacks that have killed more than 200 people this month.

Iraqiya leaders lifted the parliament ban on Sunday, but said the bloc’s nine ministers, serving in the government of the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will stay away from a weekly Cabinet meeting, also set for Tuesday.

“We hope that this will be a good start to solve the problems in Iraq,” said Iraqiya lawmaker, Zuhair al-Araji before the parliament session began.

Nahida al-Dayini, another Iraqiya lawmaker, said most of the block’s 76 lawmakers attended Tuesday’s session during which parliament members have discussed the nation’s budget.

Iraqiya leaders accuse al-Maliki of efforts to marginalize the Sunni minority and cement his own grip on power.

Al-Maliki’s security forces have launched a widespread crackdown against Sunnis, detaining hundreds for alleged ties to the deposed Baath Party of Saddam Hussein. Iraqiya said 89 of its members have been detained in the past three months.

Al-Hashemi, the Sunni vice president, denied the charges of running death squads and fled to the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, out of reach of authorities in Baghdad. He is refusing to return for trial in Baghdad.

The political battle coincides with a wave of bombing attacks, most of them targeting Shiites.

The twin crises have raised fears of a reprise of a conflict five years ago, when heavily armed Shiite and Sunni militias battled each other and brought the nation to the brink of civil war.

On Monday evening, three Iraqi soldiers were killed when a parked car bomb detonated near a military patrol in Baqouba, a former al-Qaida stronghold, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad. Three soldiers were also wounded in the bombing, said Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala province,

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Associated Press writer Barbara Surk in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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