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Iraqi
lawmakers demand U.S.
withdrawal
By United Press International
05/04/07 - - - BAGHDAD, May 2 (UPI)
-- As calls in the U.S. Congress grow for a scheduled troop
withdrawal from Iraq, similar demands are escalating in Iraq's
National Assembly.
Some 133 Iraqi lawmakers from different political blocs, calling
themselves the "free deputies," signed a document demanding a
scheduled withdrawal of the U.S.-led multinational troops from
their country, according to the Sadrist bloc in Parliament.
A legislator from the Sadrist bloc, Saleh al-Okaili, told
reporters Wednesday that his group initiated the document ahead
of a U.N. Security Council review on Iraq slated for next month.
The Sadrist bloc, whose Cabinet ministers had resigned,
represents members of a group led by Shiite maverick leader
Moqtada Sadr, who has been calling for setting a timetable to
end the U.S.-British occupation of Iraq.
Okaili said the memo signed by the lawmakers in the 275-seat
Parliament would be handed over to the U.N. Security Council and
its secretary-general, the Organization of Islamic Conference
and the Iraqi government.
"We call on the Iraqi government to refer to Parliament when
discussing a review of the foreign presence in Iraq and not to
deal unilaterally with the issue, as has been the case in the
past," the lawmaker said.
© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc.
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