On Thursday evening (October 31, 2024), Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani pledged to parliamentarians to “work as a cohesive team to legislate laws that serve the Iraqi people.”
In his inaugural speech after being elected Speaker of the Council today, Al-Mashhadani stated: I’m satisfied and regarded to stretch out to you my earnest thanks and appreciation and my highest regard and appreciation for your confidence in us as Speaker of the Committee of Delegates, whether the people who decided in favor of us or the people who didn’t cast a ballot, there is no distinction to us between the individuals who concurred and the people who protested, as these are the devices of the majority rule process, which is portrayed by numerous perspectives.”
“This responsibility that you have entrusted us with is an important and great assignment, and we will do our utmost to live up to your expectations, and I hope to be up to it,” he explained. I bind you to monitor the government’s performance and its program that it presented to the House of Representatives when it was approved and throughout its remaining life to achieve the best possible outcomes. From here, I pledge to you that we will collaborate to pass laws that benefit our beloved nation’s citizens.
Al-Mashhadani noted “the importance of coordination with all state institutions to activate these laws and identify the problems and obstacles that prevent their implementation and find effective solutions for them” and “the size of our legislative and oversight performance in the coming stage will increase due to the number of laws in the parliamentary committees that we will proceed to legislate.”
He emphasized, “during my parliamentary career and through the experience gained, I realized something of the utmost importance, which is that the difference, not the disagreement, in opinions and viewpoints between the political blocs is an important matter and will, sooner or later, serve the interests of all the proposals and draft laws that the House of Representatives will undertake to legislate.” This was something that he emphasized.
“Finally, but not least, and I do not want to take too long with you in these critical and difficult circumstances that the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people are going through, who are steadfast in the face of the massacres that are carried out by the gangs of the Zionist entity in the face of an international silence regarding the human genocide carried out by the Israeli war machine,” Al-Mashhadani continued. “Finally, but not least, and I do not want to take
“We will not be satisfied with speeches and slogans, but we will work with all Arab and international parliaments and pressure to obtain an international resolution to cease fire, end the aggression, and protect the safe peoples from the Zionist massacres,” he declared. We will also collaborate to provide humanitarian assistance to the besieged and displaced families in the honorable Gaza Strip and the honorable southern suburb. We will not spare any effort or time in this endeavor. Last but not least, all we can do is ask the Almighty to show mercy to the martyrs of our Iraqi, Palestinian, and Lebanese people and to speedily heal the injured and wounded.”