Sunni MP on al-Halboosi's resignation: al-Siyada won't swim against the current 

Shafaq News/ Al-Siyada (Sovereignty) bloc will accept the results of tomorrow's vote on the resignation of Iraq's parliament speaker, a Sunni lawmaker said on Tuesday. 

Parliament Speaker al-Halbousi is slated to submit his resignation on Wednesday, a leaked copy of the Iraqi legislative body's agenda showed yesterday.

It comes after nearly a year of political deadlock that followed a bitterly disputed election result and mounting violence.

The document obtained by Shafaq News Agency says lawmakers will vote on al-Halboosi's resignation.

MP al-Issawi said that al-Siyada bloc has a little impact on tomorrow's session.

"Even if we voted to reject the resignation, the lawmakers from the other blocs can outweigh us if they decided to accept it," he added.

"Therefore, al-Siyada will not oppose whatever the national forces vote for tomorrow," the lawmaker continued.

"In light of most recent givens, most of the lawmakers lean toward declining the resignation," he concluded.

Al-Issawi told Shafaq News Agency that leading figures and parliamentarians from al-Siyada bloc will attend a meeting today to discuss the issues to be raised in Wednesday's session.

"The meeting will mainly touch upon the terms of the agreement with the State Administration Coalition and the needs of the liberated territories," he said. 

A source familiar with the matter told Shafaq News Agency that Incumbent Parliament Speaker's resignation is not formal and tomorrow's vote will be a show of confidence.

At 41, al-Halboosi is one of the youngest leaders on Iraq's fragmented political scene. His party, Taqqadum (Progress), made significant gains in last October's election, and his alliance with powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani would have put him in a strong position in talks on forming a government.

But the process has repeatedly stalled after a coalition of mainly Iran-linked parties, the Coordination Framework, unleashed a torrent of legal and political challenges against al-Sadr, whose coalition won significantly more seats than them.

Al-Sadr has since withdrawn his representatives from the legislative body in an act of protest, leaving his allies in the trilateral coalition to find new allies.

Tomorrow's session will be the first after a weeks-long hiatus, but the reason for al-Halboosi's resignation is unclear.