Iraqi parliamentarians reject U.S. occupation
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624/
Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation By Raed Jarrar and Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted May 9, 2007.
On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the
members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of
their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition
calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal,
according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement,
the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.
It’s a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to
the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for
the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just
short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the
Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country’s civil conflict,
and at times it’s been difficult to arrive at a quorum).
Reached by phone in Baghdad on Tuesday, Al-Rubaie said that he would
present the petition, which is nonbinding, to the speaker of the
Iraqi parliament and demand that a binding measure be put to a vote.
Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution that’s called
for by a majority of lawmakers, but there are significant loopholes
and what will happen next is unclear.
[…]