Al-Sadr ‘withdraws’ from Iraqi politics, the Green Zone in Baghdad prepares for the ‘Worst’

Moments after al-Sadr movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr announced his decision to retire from politics and close his institutions, his supporters marched at the Green Zone towards presidential palaces and buildings, amidst cheers denouncing corruption and subordination.

Video clips and leaflets were carried, as crowds moved in different directions inside the presidential area amid panic and shock among Sadr supporters, which threatens to escalate in the coming hours.

“The people are the source of authority”, Sadrist Movement leader Sabah al-Saedi tweeted, referring to the responsibility for change being placed squarely with the public without referring to any particular committee or entity.

In addition, the official page of the organizing committee for the demonstrations was closed, and the page of the so-called ‘minister of the leader’, Saleh Mohammed al-Iraqi, who is close to al-Sadr and directs the recent protests, was also disabled.

After al-Sadr’s resignation, many people arrived to support the protesters in the Green Zone carrying Iraqi flags and chanting in the name of the people and achieving the desired reform.

Al-Sadr’s decision to suspend the political process comes in the wake of an initiative he proposed to solve the country’s intractable political crisis by calling for the exclusion of all ruling classes at the authoritarian and political levels.

With al-Sadr’s resignation, the door was firmly closed to any opportunity to bring him and his opponents closer in the framework of coordination, in the midst of a number of initiatives that were put forward during the past period, the last round of the national dialog table launched by Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.