BAGHDAD, 16 August 2006 — The head of the main Sunni bloc in Parliament called yesterday for the Sunni speaker of Parliament to step down to help the stability of the unity government after Shiite and Kurdish parties insisted on his removal.
Adnan Al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front, said he had not heard from Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani in several days and did not know if he planned to step aside. Mashhadani, a member of the Front, was quoted yesterday by The New York Times as saying he was considering resigning.
If Mashhadani “is ready to submit his resignation... this is good and will help a lot in avoiding a crisis in the country,” Dulaimi said. “He has not talked to us in this regard yet and of course we will agree with the majority opinion.”
The Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni bloc that has 44 seats in the 275-member Parliament, has been under pressure from the dominant Shiite and Kurdish parties to oust Mashhadani because of intemperate remarks on the Sunni insurgency and regional self-rule. “The Parliament and the major alliances have the right to request a change,” Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman said. “The Accordance Front should nominate someone else.”
Mashhadani, in Jordan yesterday for a visit at the invitation of the Jordanian Parliament, told reporters that “Iraq must return to the Arab arena and its Arab neighbors and must begin building the bridges of peace which the Iraqi people were deprived of.” He did not elaborate or comment about the moves to remove him from office.
Since taking office in May, Mashhadani has spoken out against regional self-rule, strongly supported by Shiites and Kurds but opposed by many Sunni Arabs.
He also told reporters last month that if the government refused to grant amnesty to Sunni insurgents who killed Americans, “we should punish the American soldiers who killed an Iraqi who fought against occupation.”
