The largest Sunni bloc, the Iraq Accord Front, which holds 44 of Parliament's 275 seats, has returned. It reached a deal that reinstated speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who was removed five weeks ago. The details of a back-room agreement were not released.
The Sadr Movement, a major Shiite party with 32 seats, also returned. It has been frustrated with Maliki, in part because of lax reconstruction of the bombed al-Askari shrine in Samara.
While Maliki's coalition parties plus the returning parties may meet quorum, pending chronic absenteeism, those opposed to the oil law may still block the measure if it's taken up.
"It's not suitable for us," Nawal al-Majeed, an IAF parliamentarian, told United Press International from Baghdad in a telephone interview. "Iraq now doesn't need an oil law. We need other things."
Her party, like others, opposes a draft of the law they say weakens the federal government's authority and is too friendly to foreign oil companies.
The current version of the law is less than clear, as is its status. Negotiations between the Kurdistan Regional government and the federal government in Baghdad have been ongoing for a year. At issue is regional/local versus federal control over the oil reserves -- 115 billion barrels, the third-largest in the world, though experts say that number will more than double when the country is fully explored.
The KRG and Baghdad reached a tentative deal in February, which the KRG then blocked when Baghdad revealed its breakdown of oil-field control, citing its interpretation of the 2005 constitution. The KRG says changes made to the measure earlier this month, when the Council of Ministers approved the law and sent it to Parliament, are a no-go. The oil law should not be confused with the revenue-sharing law, which would redistribute the oil proceeds.
The Kurds are trying to move past the isolation and brutality inflicted by Saddam Hussein's regime by demanding regional strength. (Sunnis, on the other hand, with little oil land, fear they'll miss out on investment if regions are strong.) And Kurds want to capitalize on the economically evolving and relatively violence-free autonomous region they've developed. It's from that standpoint they negotiate on the seemingly stalled oil law.
"Unfortunately, right now we are only talking at cross purposes," KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami told UPI in an e-mail message. He said changes to the law adopted earlier this year "changed the original agreed document beyond recognition."
"We are trying to recover from that unauthorized intervention, but the progress is very slow," Hawrami said. "This was a calculated attempt by those involved to bury the agreed document and prevent the law from being passed."
Earlier this week 108 Iraqi oil, economic and legal experts wrote a letter to Parliament urging it to retain a strong federal role and to put the law on hold until potential amendments to the constitution are dealt with.
"I think it's a legitimate call," a senior Iraqi official who received a copy of the letter said on condition of anonymity. "This law is going to affect our lives; it's going to affect the lives of our children."
The official panned the oil law's inclusion as part of President Bush's and Congress' benchmarks for Iraq's government. "I think the legislation is going to be the hardest to deliver on," adding doubts it will be approved before the Parliament takes an August recess.
"Legislation itself does not solve the problem," the official said. "I'd rather adopt something like how many families come back to their homes as a key indicator of progress."
Mustafa al-Hiti, a parliamentarian with the secular Sunni party National Dialogue Front, 11 seats, said his party will not show.
"What's the point of going to Parliament if you are doing nothing or can't do anything for your people," Hiti said from Baghdad in a telephone interview with UPI. "Nothing is working in Iraq. It is paralyzed completely. So the country is really in chaos."
He said Maliki's ruling coalition -- dominated by Shiites with links to Iran and Kurds -- is trying to consolidate power in Parliament as a means of evading dissidents. "Instead of Parliament addressing the government and controlling the government, I feel the government is controlling the Parliament."
Hiti said his party is working with other opponents of the oil law in their backing of the central government's role and limited foreign involvement.
"Many members of Parliament share our attitude," he said. "We are working now outside the Parliament to conduct all these groups together in order to vote against this when the time comes."
He said Parliament's prerogative should address the security situation.
"The militia is the only people who are in the street. The fear is just covering the faces of the people," he said. "There's no services."
He said there's been no electricity for three nights straight at the al-Rashid Hotel, where he has stayed. It's located in the "green zone," the U.S.-protected safe haven for government that has taken on such an increase in attacks the U.S. State Department has ordered its employees to wear flak jackets at zone restaurants.
"So what do you expect for the other part of Baghdad and what about the state of the people outside?" Hiti said. "So we don't have, really, a feeling, we don't think the Parliament is dong anything for the people of Iraq."
In that state of violence, of fear and mistrust between parties and ethnicities, the oil law -- pulled in numerous directions by various Iraqi factions and the United States -- remains in limbo.
Ben Lando is UPI's energy correspondent. This article re-printed by permission.
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