(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Iraqi Kurdish ministers on Tuesday resumed their participation in Iraqi government meetings, ending a one-month boycott of cabinet sessions.
"[Our ministers] attended today’s cabinet meetings," Sirwan Abdullah, a member of the Kurdish coalition in Iraq’s parliament, said.
Iraq has been embroiled in a severe political crisis since supporters of firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr staged a series of protests aimed at pressuring Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to form a government of "technocrats" untainted by corruption or sectarian bias.
Last month, thousands of Sadr loyalists stormed the parliament building in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone and assaulted a number of MPs, including some Kurdish lawmakers.
In response, Kurdish and Sunni government ministers and MPs began boycotting cabinet and parliament meetings, thus preventing either body from achieving their respective quorums for decision-making.
Iraq’s current government includes three Kurdish ministers.
"We don’t want to help escalate the crisis," Abdullah said, adding that the boycott of cabinet and parliamentary meetings had been intended to protest the prime minister’s "wrong decisions".
By Ali Jawwad