Sadrist MP blocked from leaving Sadr City

BAGHDAD, June 5 (UPI) -- A lawmaker with the Sadrist Movement of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said Iraqi troops prevented her motorcade from leaving Sadr City Thursday.

Zanaid al-Kanani said Iraqi security forces arrested her bodyguards and prevented her from leaving Sadr City at the Sahet Hamza checkpoint in the eastern Baghdad district, Voices of Iraq reported.

Iraqi security forces denied the charges.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, to discuss the return of the Iraqi Accordance Front to the government.

Hashimi is the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the major parties that make up the Iraqi Accordance Front, a major Sunni bloc. The IAF withdrew from the Maliki government in August following a series of political disputes.

The Sunni bloc submitted names for consideration for the Iraqi Cabinet in May, though the list was later withdrawn over disputes regarding its candidate for the minister of planning.

Hashimi said earlier in the week from Jordan negotiations regarding the bloc's return to government "would not stop" and its decision to remove its Cabinet list was "a strategic and not a political tactic."

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh called the IAF "a key constituent in the government and the Iraqi political structure."