Supporters of Iraqi populist leader Moqtada al-Sadr pitched tents and prepared for an endless protest in Iraq’s parliament on Sunday, in a move that could prolong the political stalemate or plunge the country into new violence.
Thousands of supporters of the Shiite Muslim cleric stormed Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Saturday, taking over the empty parliament building for the second time in a week as his Shiite rivals, most of them close to Iran, try to form a government.
“We will stay until our demands are met. And we have a lot of demands,” a member of Sadr’s political team told Reuters by phone, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to give statements to the media.
Sadr’s socio-political Sadrist Movement is demanding that parliament be dissolved and that new elections be held and that federal judges be replaced, the Sadrist official said.
The Sadrist Movement took first place in the October elections as the largest party in parliament, with about a quarter of its 329 members.
Iran-aligned parties suffered heavy losses at the polls, with the exception of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sadr’s arch-rival.
However, Sadr failed to form a government free from these parties, surrounded by sufficient opposition in parliament and federal court rulings that prevented him from choosing president and prime minister.
He pulled his lawmakers out of parliament in protests and has since used his masses of mostly impoverished Shia followers to agitate through street protests.
The standoff marks Iraq’s biggest crisis in years. In 2017, Iraqi forces, along with a US-led coalition and Iranian military support, defeated the Sunni Muslim extremist group Islamic State that had conquered a third of Iraq.
Two years later, Iraqis suffering from a lack of jobs and services took to the streets demanding an end to corruption, new elections and the removal of all parties – especially the powerful Shia groups – that have ruled the country since the US-led government – invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Government forces and Shiite militiamen shot dead hundreds of protesters.
Sadr continues to ride on the wave of popular opposition to his Iranian-backed rivals, saying they are corrupt and serve Tehran’s interests, not Baghdad’s.
The mercurial cleric, however, maintains a firm grip on large parts of the state, and his Sadrist Movement has long run some of the most corrupt and dysfunctional government departments.
Source: CNN Brasil
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