Iraqi lawmaker says walkout exposes fragile political consensus on Saudi strikes

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A senior Iraqi lawmaker said the walkout of Sunni and Kurdish blocs from a parliamentary session on Saudi Arabia's bombing of Hashd al-Shaabi headquarters exposed the fragility of national consensus on sovereignty and security issues. Baha al-A'rajji, head of the Iraqi parliament's Reconstruction and Development Bloc, said the absence of Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers during the session — at which Shia forces condemned the strikes — reflected sectarian polarization resurfacing on security and sovereignty matters. He noted that differences over relations with Riyadh, approaches to armed groups and rivalries for influence within parliament shaped the chamber's response. "Only the wounded feels the wound," al-A'rajji said, summarizing what he described as divergent assessments among political actors of the seriousness of the attacks. He argued that the episode demonstrated once more how sensitive files expose the fragile structure of national consensus and the determining role of regional dynamics in Iraq's political balance.