Iraqi MPs from Moqtada Sadr's bloc resign

• 

Muqtada Al-Sadr, the leader of Iraq's Sadrist movement, directed the head of the Sadrist bloc, Hassan Al-Adhari, to submit the resignations of the Sadrist bloc MPs to the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, and ordered the closure of affiliated institutions currently in operation, with some exceptions.

Al-Sadr said that this step is considered a sacrifice for the sake of the homeland and the Iraqi people to save them from an unknown fate.

"We have reluctantly accepted the requests of our brothers and sisters, representatives of the Sadr bloc, to resign," Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbussi said on Twitter after receiving the resignation letters from the 73 lawmakers.

Al Mayadeen correspondent in Iraq reported that "there are multiple legal options regarding how to deal with the resignation of Sadrist bloc members," stressing that "there is a legal option which confirms the need for parliament to vote on the resignations and another which says that the speaker has the jurisdiction in this context."

Al-Sadr had urged, on Thursday, the MPs from his bloc -- the biggest in parliament -- to ready resignation papers, in a bid, he said, to break the parliamentary logjam and create space for the establishment of a new government.

"If the survival of the Sadrist bloc is an obstacle to the formation of the government, then all representatives of the bloc are ready to resign from parliament," Al-Sadr said on Thursday in a televised statement.

Iraqi lawmakers have already exceeded all deadlines for setting up a new government set down in the constitution, prolonging the country's political crisis.

If the parliamentary impasse cannot be broken, new elections may be called, but that would necessitate lawmakers agreeing to dissolve Parliament.