Pro-Tehran government: Muqtada a-Sadr’s crisis reveals Iran’s plans in Iraq
Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr called on the judicial authorities to dissolve the parliament within a week, urging his supporters to continue their sit-in outside the legislative council.
According to Iraqi analysts, Al-Sadr sees himself in a position of strength and feels that using the pressure of the street serves his interests. He also wants to deal his opponents a quick and decisive blow by imposing an accurate timetable that deprives them of any room for maneuver if they try to evade early elections.
Political crisis
The English-language newspaper, Arab Weekly, emphasized that holding early elections, according to the experts, is not guaranteed to create a new political balance, as the problem lies in the sectarian quota system imposing rules that prevent any political party or bloc from fully exercising power, as Iraq, which was without a new government following the elections of last October, faced a deep political crisis after Al-Sadr’s supporters broke into the parliament late last month.
According to the newspaper, Al-Sadr’s supporters were motivated by their opposition to the nomination of Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, a supporter of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, for the position of prime minister. In recent days, however, Al-Sadr’s supporters have changed the location of their sit-in outside parliament in the usually heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad.
Al-Sadr arguments
Al-Sadr demanded the dissolution of parliament and the holding of early elections. He said in a statement through his Twitter account: “Some might say that dissolving parliament requires a parliamentary session,” and accused some blocs of preferring to remain in power, maintaining “corruption” and not wanting to “comply with the demands of the people.”
In his address, al-Sadr also called on “the competent judicial authorities” to dissolve the parliament no later than the end of next week. He said: Doing so would allow the president to “set a date for early elections, under conditions that we will announce later,” and Sadr justified his calls for judicial action by noting that the constitutional deadlines for appointing a new president and prime minister had passed after last year’s legislative elections.
Iran’s plan
According to the English-language newspaper, experts are divided on whether Sadr has any legal basis for his demands, having won the largest share of seats in last October’s elections, but he failed to form a majority government that excluded his rivals allied with Iran. The judiciary has previously stated that it does not have the constitutional authority to dissolve the parliament, that only lawmakers can vote to dissolve the legislative council, and because the House of Representatives has exceeded the constitutional timetable to form the government after last October’s elections, what will happen in the coming period is unclear.
