Iraqi Parliament staff returns to work amid political turmoil

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According to an Iraqi assembly official, Iraq's parliament staff returned to work Sunday for the first time since Muqtada Al-Sadr's supporters stormed the legislature in late July. 

Following an 11-month political tension that sparked deadly clashes in Baghdad last week, the update came as speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi suggested an agenda for an upcoming national dialogue session: "All parliament staff have returned to work," the official who decided to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media, told AFP per orders issued on Saturday night. 

"Operations in parliament had been suspended since protesters stormed the legislature's building," he said, referring to the staged sit-in outside the assembly for weeks after initially being stormed to demand re-elections and the dissolution of parliament.  

Al-Sadr had apologized to the Iraqi people in his first speech since announcing his retirement from political life, and the beginning of the armed clashes that took place in the country and resulted in about 23 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

At his orders, the supporters abandoned the streets after nearly 24 hours of violence pitting them against the army and opposing political parties that left more than 20 protesters dead, after they stormed the government palace in the capital's Green Zone which is marked one of the deadliest episodes of street violence in the country in approximately 3 years. 

The Iraqi leader stressed that "the revolution that was marred by violence is no longer a revolution, and I am now criticizing the revolution of the Sadrist movement," noting that "recent events have made Iraq a prisoner of corruption and violence at the same time."

Parliament speaker Al-Halbousi suggested, in a Twitter statement on Sunday, an agenda for a second national dialogue session, following the previous one that was held on August 17, which are parts of a bid to end a political impasse that has left Iraq without a government, prime minister or a president since elections last October.  

The first session was boycotted by Sadr representatives, and Al-Halbousi did not set a schedule or expected date for the upcoming talks but said they should "set a date for early parliamentary elections" and discuss the election of a new president to form a government and it was not immediately clear who would attend the talks.