‘ALL PARTIES’ LEAVE GOVERNMENT POSTS IN IRAQ, AL SADR

Sat 27 August 2022:

Moqtada Sadr, an influential Shiite Muslim leader in Iraq, said on Saturday that in order to help end the country’s protracted political crisis, “all parties,” including his own, should renounce their positions in the government.

But due to political deadlock since last year October elections, the country has been without a new government, prime minister, or president as a result of disagreements between factions over how to form a coalition.

The dissolution of parliament and new elections have been demanded by Sadr and his supporters, but on Saturday he said that wasn’t “so important.”

Instead, it is “more important” that “all parties and figures who have been part of the political process from the American occupation in 2003 until now no longer participate”, Sadr said on Twitter.

“That includes the Sadrist movement,” he added.

“I am ready to sign an agreement to this effect within 72 hours,” he said, warning that without such a move, “there would no longer be anymore room for reforms.”

He did not indicate who he expected would lead a future government.

After initially storming the parliament’s interior, Sadr’s supporters have been holding a sit-in outside the building for weeks to press their demands.

They also set up tents outside the Baghdad headquarters of the judicial branch on Tuesday for a period of time.

Before any new elections are held, the opponents of Sadr in the pro-Iran Coordination Framework want a new head of state to be appointed.

Since Saddam Hussein’s longtime dictatorship was overthrown in 2003 by a US-led invasion, Iraq has been governed by a sectarian power-sharing structure.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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