Iraq’s parliament elects a new speaker to face political and financial challenges

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s parliament on Monday elected a new speaker following overnight talks to break a political deadlock.

Haibet Al-Halbousi received 208 votes from the 309 legislators who attended. He is a member of the Takadum, or Progress, party led by ousted speaker and relative Mohammed al-Halbousi. Twenty legislators did not attend the session.

Iraq has been walking a tightrope to maintain close ties with the United States and neighboring Iran as tensions continue in the Middle East.

Iraq held parliamentary elections in November but didn’t produce a bloc with a decisive majority. By convention, Iraq’s president is always Kurdish, while the more powerful prime minister is Shiite and the parliamentary speaker is Sunni.

The new speaker must address a much-debated bill that would have the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units — an umbrella group of Iraqi Shiite militias largely backed by Iran — become a formal security institution under the state. Iran-backed armed groups have growing political influence.

Al-Halbousi also must tackle Iraq’s mounting public debt of tens of billions of dollars as well as widespread corruption.

Babel Governor Adnan Feyhan was elected first deputy speaker with 177 votes, a development that might concern Washington. Feyhan is a member of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, a U.S.-sanctioned, Iran-backed Shiite group with an armed wing led by Qais al-Khazali, also sanctioned by Washington.

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Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.