BAGHDAD: Iraqi lawmakers voted Thursday to remove the Parliament speaker and his deputies from office, increasing political turmoil as the country battles radicals and struggles with a financial crisis.
The chaos at Parliament is a significant setback for Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, overshadowing his efforts to replace the current Cabinet and preventing nominees from being brought to a vote.
The turmoil has escalated over three successive sessions this week: the first ended in a sit-in, the second with a fistfight among lawmakers, and the third with the vote to remove parliament speaker Salim Al-Juburi.
Juburi, one of the country’s leading Sunni Arab politicians, issued a statement saying that the session, which he did not attend, was unconstitutional and that the required quorum was not reached.
The session held “in the absence of the presidency of parliament is unconstitutional and lacked the necessary quorum,” the statement said.
But Niyazi Oghlu, the official responsible for taking roll at parliament, put the number of lawmakers present at 173, while two lawmakers also said more than 170 attended.
The main Sunni bloc condemned the effort to remove Juburi.
“These calls will lead to the end of the concept of political partnership and the principle of consensus on which the political process was based,” it said in a statement read out by MP Ahmed Al-Misari.
Abadi has called for the party-affiliated Cabinet to be replaced by a government of technocrats, but has faced significant resistance from the powerful parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds.
An “emergency” session on Wednesday ended with lawmakers shouting, shoving and throwing punches in the Parliament hall, leading Juburi to call a recess.
The speaker’s office said earlier in the day that Abadi was to give a revised list of nominees to Parliament on Thursday, but the move to sack Juburi stole the spotlight instead.
Abadi presented a first list of Cabinet nominees at the end of March, but the political blocs put forward their own candidates, and most of the premier’s original list was replaced on a second presented to MPs on Tuesday.
Some MPs demanded the opportunity to vote on Abadi’s original list — from which at least two candidates had already withdrawn — but the session was adjourned Tuesday without a vote.
Dozens of lawmakers then began a sit-in and spent the night at Parliament.
Iraqi ministries have for years been shared out between powerful political parties that run them as their personal fiefdoms, relying on them for patronage and funds.
But even if the current Cabinet line-up is replaced with independent, technocratic ministers — a change that faces major obstacles — that would only be the beginning of the process.
Iraq MPs vote to fire speaker
Iraq MPs vote to fire speaker
Palestinians attempt to use Gaza’s Rafah Border crossing amidst delays
- The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening
CAIRO: Palestinians on both sides of the crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which opened last week for the first time since 2024, were making their way to the border on Sunday in hopes of crossing, one of the main requirements for the US-backed ceasefire. The opening comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, though the major subject of discussion will be Iran, his office said.
The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening. Over the first four days of the crossing’s opening, just 36 Palestinians requiring medical care were allowed to leave for Egypt, plus 62 companions, according to United Nations data.
Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people in Gaza are seeking to leave for medical care that they say is not available in the war-shattered territory. The few who have succeeded in crossing described delays and allegations of mistreatment by Israeli forces and other groups involved in the crossing, including and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab.
A group of Palestinian patients and wounded gathered Sunday morning in the courtyard of a Red Crescent hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, before making their way to the Rafah crossing with Egypt for treatment abroad, family members told The Associated Press.
Amjad Abu Jedian, who was injured in the war, was scheduled to leave Gaza for medical treatment on the first day of the crossing’s reopening, but only five patients were allowed to travel that day, his mother, Raja Abu Jedian, said. Abu Jedian was shot by an Israeli sniper while he was building traditional bathrooms in the central Bureij refugee camp in July 2024, she said.
On Saturday, his family received a call from the World Health Organization notifying them that he is included in the group that will travel on Sunday, she said.
“We want them to take care of the patients (during their evacuation),” she said. “We want the Israeli military not to burden them.”
The Israeli defense branch that oversees the operation of the crossing did not immediately confirm the opening.
A group of Palestinians also arrived Sunday morning at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing border to return to the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television reported.
Palestinians who returned to Gaza in the first few days of the crossing’s operation described hours of delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab. A European Union mission and Palestinian officials run the border crossing, and Israel has its screening facility some distance away.
The crossing was reopened on Feb. 2 as part of a fragile ceasefire deal that stopped the war between Israel and Hamas. Amid confusion around the reopening, the Rafah crossing was closed Friday and Saturday.
The Rafah crossing, an essential lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, was the only crossing not controlled by Israel prior to the war. Israel seized the Palestinian side of Rafah in May 2024, though traffic through the crossing was heavily restricted even before that.
Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day and 50 medical patients — along with two companions for each — would be allowed to leave, but far fewer people than expected have crossed in both directions.
