Iraqi parliament speaker 'reluctantly' accepts resignation of Sadrist MPs

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Mohammed Al-Halbousi, "reluctantly" accepted the resignations of the Sadrist members of the Iraqi Parliament on Sunday.

In a tweet, Halbousi said that upon "the desire of His Eminence, Muqtada al-Sadr, we reluctantly accepted the requests of our brothers and sisters, the Sadrist bloc's representatives, to resign from the Iraqi parliament."

Halbousi added that while he had made "a sincere" effort to discourage Sadr from this step, the populist Shiite politician preferred to proceed with the decision for "the sake of the country."

Halbousi's tweet came after Sadr called on Hassan al-Adhari, the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, to submit the resignations of his bloc's deputies.

The move came amidst a prolonged stalemate over government formation between the Saving the Homeland Alliance, of which the Sadrist Movement was a part, and the Shiite Coordination Framework, consisting of Iran-backed parties.

Sadr previously said that submitting the resignations was "a sacrifice on my part for the country and the people to rid them of an unknown fate."