ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi on Sunday identified a number of matters that must be discussed and agreed upon during the next national dialogue sessions in Iraq, including setting early parliamentary elections and electing a president.
Iraq has been engulfed by a political deadlock for months. The situation escalated in late July after Sadrist supporters stormed the Iraqi parliament, demanding its dissolution and holding early elections. Later in August, the Shiite cleric called on Iraq's judiciary to dissolve the parliament and his protestors flocked to the council's building, despite it affirming that it does not reserve the right to execute his demands as it cannot interfere in legislative or executive matters.
"The agenda of the upcoming national dialogue sessions must include a number of matters that the political process cannot proceed without agreeing on them," Halbousi said in a tweet while issuing a ten-point initiative to be discussed during the next sessions.
The points included the "election of the President of the Republic" and "choosing a government with complete authority agreed on and trusted by people and political forces."
Tensions escalated in Baghdad on Monday after Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said he was quitting politics, setting off violent clashes between his supporters and Coordination Framework loyalists in the capital's high-security Green Zone, which led to the deaths of at least 30 people and the injury of over 500 others.
Despite Sadr's call for ending the violence, his militia Saraya al-Salam and pro-Iran Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) militia groups engaged in heavy confrontations in Iraq's southern city of Basra on Wednesday, leaving at least four militants killed, according to AFP.
Halbousi also called for the amendment of the parliamentary elections law and the re-interpretation of Article 76 in the constitution to prevent the law from being manipulated.
The Article describes the process of forming a government and the specific deadlines each step must abide by. The article has not been implemented by the winners of the October elections due to continued political disputes.
Halbousi further urged for "organizing the relationship between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) with a public agreement until the approval of the oil and gas law."
Iraq's top court in February found the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas law to be "unconstitutional," therefore striking down the legal basis for the independence of the Region's oil and gas sector, a decision repeatedly slammed by Kurdish leaders.
Last month, Iraq's oil ministry claimed that three major US energy firms - Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, and Haliburton - have confirmed to the ministry that they will no longer tender for new projects in the Kurdistan Region.
Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar in June backed the implementation of the federal court's decision on the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas law, stating that Iraq should have a standard method of managing the country's wealth.
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