BAGHDAD — The uproar over Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi’s tossing of his shoes at President George W. Bush continued Wednesday in the Iraqi parliament chamber, where the body’s speaker erupted in anger at lawmakers and said he was quitting over their obsession with the topic.
It was not immediately clear how serious Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was about stepping down. The speaker is known for his outbursts. He slapped a legislator during a heated debate last year. He has been criticized by other lawmakers for yelling at parliament members during debates and surrounding himself with an aggressive posse of security guards.
The latest incident occurred as parliament was due to hear the first reading of a bill that would mandate the withdrawal of British, Australian, El Salvadoran, Romanian and other non-U.S. foreign forces from Iraq next year. The bill calls for them to be out of the country by July 31.
Members of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s political bloc, known as the Sadr Trend, objected to the reading and said the priority should be al-Zeidi’s case.
Words were exchanged. Voices were raised. Al-Mashhadani, who found himself at the center of a near-brawl involving the Sadrists during November’s debate on a pact governing the future of U.S. forces, got fed up.
“I can’t work in such a situation!” he declared, according to other lawmakers who attended the session. They quoted him as saying that half the parliament members were loyal to the government and others were loyal to their parties, and hence no serious work could get done.
Lawmakers loyal to al-Sadr have demanded al-Zeidi be freed. They also oppose any pacts allowing foreign troops to remain in Iraq past the end of this year and provoked chaos in parliament during November’s debate on the pact that will permit American forces to stay in the country through 2011.
Al-Zeidi remained in custody, but it was unclear what he will be charged with.
