The Iraqi parliament suspended its session for this day until further notice after a verbal altercation took place between Shiite and Kurdish representatives, against the backdrop of statements by the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, former Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who implicitly accused factions in the Popular Mobilization Forces of being behind the recent bombing of Erbil airport.

Members of the "Al-Fateh" bloc, which is led by Hadi Al-Amiri and includes the majority of the "Popular Mobilization" factions, strongly criticized Zebari's statements, which prompted the rejection of a number of Kurdish representatives.

The verbal altercation erupted, after Hassan Al Kaabi, a member of the Al-Fateh bloc, the deputy speaker of Parliament, asked Zebari to submit an apology to the "Popular Mobilization" factions against the backdrop of his recent statements.

Al-Kaabi said during the session, "We will not accept offending any official institution in the Iraqi state, and Zebari must submit an apology befitting the role of the popular crowd."

First Deputy Speaker, Mr. Hassan Karim # Al-Kaabi, during his presidency of the parliament session for today:

We will not accept insulting any official government institution in the Iraqi state .. and the statement of the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Mr.


# Hoshyar Zebari, in Al-Hurra channel against the


Mobilization

Authority

is "rejected" and we will not accept it .. pic.twitter.com/4mZfQrM7Es

- Hassan Karim Al-Kaabi (@HassanAL_kaabi) October 14, 2020

Al-Kaabi’s request was met with strong rejection by a number of Kurdish lawmakers, who considered that Zebari’s statements were not offensive to the PMF.

After that, verbal altercations broke out between Kurdish representatives and representatives from the "Al-Fateh" coalition, before the deputy speaker announced that the session would be suspended until further notice.

Later, the media department in Parliament issued a statement saying, "It has been decided to adjourn the parliament session, and the deputies will be notified later of the date of the next session."

Zebari said that the groups that attack the US embassy are behind the attack on Erbil Airport (Al-Jazeera)

Zebari remarks

Zebari said in statements last week that "missile attacks were launched on Iranian opposition sites near Erbil airport," adding that "this is another escalation of destabilizing security in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan by the same groups that attack the US embassy in Baghdad."

Tonight three rocket attacks on nearby locations of #Iranian opposition close to #ErbilintAirport is yet another escalation to disrupt security in #Iraq and #IraqiKurdistan by the same groups who are attacking #USEmbassy in #Baghdad and its convoys.

Actions is needed to stop it.

- Hoshyar Zebari (@HoshyarZebari) September 30, 2020

In other statements, he said that the reason for targeting Erbil is because the armed Shiite factions consider the region close to the United States.

The authorities of the Kurdistan region held the Popular Mobilization Authority responsible for targeting US forces at Erbil airport on Wednesday evening with missiles that did not cause damage.

The Counter-Terrorism Service in the region said - in a statement - that "6 rockets were fired from the outskirts of the village of Sheikh Amir in Nineveh Governorate by the Popular Mobilization Forces and targeted the coalition base at Erbil International Airport," where American soldiers are stationed.

In turn, the Ministry of Interior in the regional government announced that the missiles were fired from a pick-up truck from a place located "within the limits of the 30th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces," and did not cause any damage.

The Nineveh Operations Command of the Popular Mobilization Forces denied its connection with the attack, and said in a statement that the area from which the rockets were launched towards Erbil is uninhabited, and is located in a triangle surrounded by the army and the Mobilization Forces of Shabak and Peshmerga forces, and added that it has opened an investigation into the incident, and that a force of the crowd is conducting In search of rocket launchers.

The Erbil attack came after Washington’s threat to close its embassy in Baghdad and withdraw its forces from Iraq if these attacks did not stop.