Sadrists irked over speaker post

BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Members of the Shiite Sadrist Movement Tuesday called on the Sunni Iraq Accordance Front to withdraw from seeking the position of parliamentary speaker.

Former Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani stepped down last week amid pressure from lawmakers over a deal laying the framework for a non-U.S. troop presence in Iraq in 2009. The U.N. mandate governing the multinational force in Iraq expires Wednesday.

Ahmed al-Masoudi with the Sadrist Movement of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr said his party was calling on the IAF to remove its interest in the post as the majority of the Sunni members withdrew from the party in the wake of the resignation, the Voices of Iraq news agency said.

"Most of the lawmakers have agreed that the IAF was dismantled after the withdrawal of the National Dialogue Council, and a number of figures from the front," he said.

The Iraqi National Dialogue Council and a slate of independents lawmakers withdrew from the IAF following Mashhadani's resignation, citing a failure of national obligation.

The IAF withdrew from the unity government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in 2007 over a variety of political disputes but returned to the government in July.