BAGHDAD — Staff at
Iraq’s parliament returned to work Sunday for the first time since powerful Shiite
cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr’s supporters stormed the legislature in late July, an
assembly official said.
اضافة اعلان
The development
came as speaker Mohammed Al-Halbusi suggested an agenda for an upcoming
national dialogue session following an 11-month political paralysis that
sparked deadly clashes in
Baghdad last week.
“All parliament
staff have returned to work,” following orders issued on Saturday night, the
parliament official told AFP, on condition of anonymity because he is not
authorized to speak to the media.
“Operations in
parliament had been suspended since protesters stormed the legislature’s
building,” he said.
The protesters had
staged a sit-in outside the assembly for weeks after initially storming it to
demand fresh elections and the dissolution of parliament.
They pulled out
last Tuesday at Sadr’s orders following nearly 24 hours of violence pitting
them against the army and Iran-backed factions that left more than 30 Sadr
supporters dead.
The battles that
started when Sadr supporters stormed the government palace in the capital’s
fortified
Green Zone marked one of the deadliest episodes of street violence in
the country in nearly three years.
In a statement
posted on Twitter on Sunday, Halbusi suggested an agenda for a second national
dialogue session, following a previous round that was held on August 17.
The dialogue
sessions are part of a bid to end a political stalemate that has left Iraq
without a new government, prime minister or president since elections last
October.
The first session
was boycotted by Sadr representatives.
Halbusi did not
set a timeframe for the upcoming talks but said they should “set a date for
early parliamentary elections” and discuss the election of a new president and
formation of a government.
It was not immediately
clear who would attend the talks.
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