Flag of Iraq. File photoCAiro, Jun 12 Iraqi parliament speaker Muhammad al-Khalbusi said on Sunday that he had accepted the resignation of deputies from Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc, the largest in the legislature.»We reluctantly accepted the requests of brothers and sisters from the bloc al-Sadr to resign from the parliament,» the speaker wrote on Twitter. According to him, the leadership of the parliament tried to dissuade al-Sadr, but he decided to make such a «sacrifice» so as not to be the reason for the idle parliament. Chairman of the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament Hassan al-Azari on Sunday submitted a petition to the presidium for the resignation of all the deputies of the bloc amid a protracted crisis in the formation of a government. Earlier in May, the al-Sadra bloc announced its departure to the opposition after the failure of initiatives to form a government, thus giving other parties and independents a chance parliamentarians to form a cabinet. At the same time, al-Sadr promised to find another solution if this step does not bring success. The al-Sadr bloc won the early parliamentary elections held in October last year, receiving 73 seats in the 329-seat parliament. The Shiite politician has previously proposed two initiatives to form a government, addressed to the leaders of other Shiite parties that did not recognize al-Sadr's victory in the elections, as well as independent deputies. However, they were not successful. Al-Sadr's opponents insisted on the formation of a government of national accord with the participation of all political forces represented in parliament, while al-Sadr advocated the creation of a majority government in alliance with the largest Sunni bloc Al-Siyadah (Sovereignty) and the Democratic Party Kurdistan.
Iraqi parliament voted to ban normalization of relations with Israel
