BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers buried the hatchet Saturday, with public displays of goodwill and apologies over “misunderstandings,” as parliament approved a broad agreement that will usher in a new government after a debilitating eight-month deadlock.
Two days after they walked out of a raucous session that showed the deep rifts in the halls of power, members of the Sunni Arab-backed Iraqiya bloc returned to parliament for a final vote on the accord that saw Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki maintain his hold on power.
Iraqiya members apologized for walking out Thursday after the Shiite and Kurdish blocs in the parliament refused to go along with a request for an immediate lifting of a political ban on four Iraqiya members because of their alleged ties to Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.
Lawmakers agreed Saturday to start the process of lifting the bans. The 325-member body also voted in favor of the agreement, hammered out last week, that proved to be the breakthrough in ending the stalemate over inconclusive national elections.
The agreement’s contours include promoting reconciliation; power-sharing; devolving the powers of the prime minister’s office; empowering the Cabinet; and a timeline for ending the process of purging suspected Baath members from government.
But the session Saturday could be a fleeting moment. The weeks ahead are sure to be stormy as the sides brawl over the meaning of the often vague language of the agreement.
In fact, even as the sides celebrated the end of the political crisis, the head of Iraqiya, Ayad Allawi, muddied the waters.
Allawi, whose bloc won 91 seats in the March elections, the largest slate in the parliament, threatened to serve in the opposition and not join the government as the head of a new body, the National Council for Strategic Policies.
