False alarm at Iraqi Parliament

Two Ugandan security guards, each with a large sniffer dog straining on the end of a leash, was the first thing I saw when entering Iraq’s Parliament building yesterday.
Security was tight for what was billed to be a crunch vote by MPs on whether or not to approve a three-year timetable for US forces to leave the country.
Inside and up a flight of stares, gaggles of journalists huddled around passing politicians, scribbling on notepads or holding out a microphone to catch their comments on the last-minute deal-making that was taking place.
Every now and then, a senior MP swept past surrounded by a forest of security guards. Some chose to visit a crowded media room to speak to waiting television cameras. Others disappeared into off-limit rooms for private meetings.
Time ticked past with no news on whether Parliament’s 275 MPs would gather, as scheduled, to cast their vote, ending a process that has dragged on for months.
Suddenly, as I leant sullenly against a wall, a flurry of movement to the left caught my eye.
About 20 Iraqi journalists had swarmed urgently around a man holding a piece of paper. An important exchange was taking place, with the press pack and the man yelling at each other, waving hands and writing on notepads.
Some journalists even broke away to make hurried mobile phone calls.
Convinced that some key decision had just been made, but unable to understand a word because I don’t speak Arabic, I searched frantically for my interpreter.
He finally appeared. I shoved him towards the media scrum to find out what was going on. Moments later, he reported back with the ‘breaking news’.
“The journalists are hungry after being here for so long and are putting in orders for falafel,” he said…
Unsurprisingly, 24 hours later we are still waiting for the vote.

[Picture: Inside Iraq's Parliament, by AP]