WORLD> Middle East
Iraqi parliament OKs speaker's resign and bill on troops withdrawal
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-24 10:29

BAGHDAD -- Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, speaker of Iraq's parliament, announced his resignation on Tuesday, the Iraqi official TV reported.

Mashhadani offered to step down at a special session late on the day, the Iraqia TV reported. His resignation was accepted by the majority of the parliament members.

Soon after his resignation, lawmakers passed a resolution which will allow thousands of non-US troops in Iraq to stay until summer of 2009.

The vote over the draft bill was postponed Monday as the Kurdish bloc and a major Shiite union insisted that Mashhadani should resign.

They were demanding so after chaos and arguments erupted in the parliament last Wednesday over the issue of Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the visiting US President George W. Bush.