ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Salim Jabouri is scheduled to arrive in Sulaimani city today to meet with Kurdish authorities about the possible return of Kurdish MPs to Baghdad after they left the city when angry protesters stormed the parliament building late last month. Rudaw reporter in Sulaimani said that Jabouri will meet the deputy speaker of the parliament Aram Sheikh Muhammed to discuss the situation of Iraq and the return of Kurdish MPs to the Iraqi Parliament. Jabouri’s visit comes following a unanimous statement by Kurdish MPs that they will only return to parliament in the Iraqi capital on the decision of their respective party leaders. Jabouri is to meet with Aram Sheikh Mohammed, his deputy and a Kurdish MP in the Iraqi parliament who was physically attacked by pro-Sadr protestors during the storming of the compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone. Meanwhike, Muthana Amin, an MP from the Kurdistan Islamic Union (Yakgrtu) told Rudaw that he had not been informed about the visit by the speaker of parliament to Sulaimani. Iraqi MP Abdulqadir Samarai says that Jabouri will be in Kurdistan to check up on the health of the Kurdish and some Sunni MPs who were briefly trapped inside the parliament and had to be evacuated to the Kurdistan Region by air. Samarai added that "Parliament sessions should not take place in the absence of Kurdish MPs, because Kurds are an important part of the Iraqi political process," Kurdish MPs say they welcome Jabouri in Sulaimani and may hold talks with him but they are far from moving back to Baghdad any time soon. The Kurdish MPs had previously rejected a similar call by Iraqi Prime Minister Hadier al-Abadi to return to Baghdad. According to Samarai, Sunni MPs are not ready to return to the parliament either "until they are reassured of their safety."
