16 May 2016•Update: 16 May 2016
By Ali Jawwad
BAGHDAD
The heads of Kurdish parties represented in Iraq’s parliament are set to meet on Monday to discuss an earlier decision to boycott cabinet and parliament meetings, a Kurdish lawmaker has said.
"Kurdish party leaders will meet in Sulaymaniyah on Monday to discuss several issues, including their decision to boycott meetings of the government and parliament," Sarhan Ahmed, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), told Anadolu Agency.
At the meeting, he expects party leaders to vote in favor of ending their boycott.
"The current [political] situation requires the Kurds to have a presence in Baghdad," he said.
There are five different Kurdish blocs in Iraq's 328-seat parliament.
Last month, thousands of supporters of firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the parliament building in Baghdad’s Green Zone and assaulted a number of MPs, including some Kurdish lawmakers.
In response, Kurdish and Sunni lawmakers decided to boycott upcoming cabinet and parliamentary meetings, thus preventing either body from achieving their respective quorums.
Iraq has been embroiled in a deepening political crisis since March, when Sadr’s supporters staged a number of protests outside the Green Zone to pressure Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to draw up a government of "technocrats" untainted by corruption or sectarian affiliations.
