An emergency session of Iraq's parliament descended into chaos on Wednesday, preventing a vote on a new cabinet amid a row over political blocs controlling key government posts. Lawmakers argued and hurled water bottles at each other in the parliament hall, forcing a recess, MPs told AFP.
The political row comes at a critical time for Iraq, which is battling to regain more territory from the Islamic State jihadist group, and Washington has expressed concern that the cabinet dispute could distract from that fight. Iraq is also struggling with a major financial crisis caused by low oil prices combined with inefficiency and corruption, and US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter plans to discuss Gulf states providing economic aid to Iraq during an upcoming trip to the region.
Dozens of lawmakers held an overnight sit-in at parliament to protest efforts by influential political blocs to maintain control of ministries, prompting speaker Salim al-Juburi to convene Wednesday's session. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who wants the cabinet to include technocrats instead of party-affiliated ministers, presented a list of nominees at the end of March.
But the blocs put forward their own candidates and most of Abadi's were replaced on a second list distributed to lawmakers on Tuesday. Some MPs demanded the opportunity to vote on Abadi's original list - from which at least two candidates had already withdrawn - but the session was adjourned Tuesday without a vote on either the old or the new lists. Angry scenes continued on Wednesday when MPs threw water bottles and shouted at each other, two lawmakers said.
Earlier in the day, an AFP journalist saw around 80 members of parliament taking part in a sit-in inside the parliament hall, some of whom chanted: "Yes yes to reform, no no to (political) quotas!" Thin mattresses on which lawmakers slept were spread outside the entrance to the hall.