Iraq: Does Sadrist protesters back to demonstrations?

The Sadrist movement, which is affiliated with Muqtada Al-Sadr in Iraq, has started to make a comeback; The aim is to prevent Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani from running for prime minister by expanding protests in the central and southern governorates.

According to an unidentified Sadrist leader quoted by Shafaq News Agency, the movement intends to escalate in the coming days with the approach of forty Green Zone deaths from Sadrist supporters in the recent events that accompanied the storming of the Iraqi parliament.

According to the same source, the leader of the Sadrist Movement said, “The leadership of the Sadrist movement is seriously considering the restoration of popular protests in the capital Baghdad, with their expansion in some central and southern provinces in the next few days, especially with the approach of 40 martyrs of the Green Zone demonstrations.”

“The Sadrist movement will escalate popular protests to prevent the coordination framework from forming the government of Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, as the Movement will not allow that, and the Sadrists’ taking to the street is near,” he continued. “Work is ongoing to put the final touches on the return of the protests, which will be completely different from the previous ones.”

Last July, the leaders of the Coordination Framework, which includes pro-Iranian Shia forces, announced Al Sudani’s candidacy, something that al-Sadr’s movement leader Muqtada Al-Sadr categorically rejected.

“Tensions escalated between the Sadr movement and the al-Sadr Movement, which was later able to storm the parliament building in the Green Zone, and escalated after armed clashes with members of the Hashd Security Force in which 30 followers were killed, before the latter directed his supporters to withdraw from the Green Zone.”

In an interview with Georges Malbrunot, chief editor of the French newspaper Le Figaro, caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said that Iraq was on the brink of civil war following clashes in the Green Zone between al-Sadr supporters and armed factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, praised yesterday the briefing of the United Nations representative, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, before the Security Council. At the same time, he warned the Council not to listen to the speech of the representative of Iraq, Mohammad Bahr al-Uloom, while he expressed his approval of a dialog with the political blocs, provided that it is public.

Al-Sadr said in a tweet: “I listened carefully to the UN Security Council meeting on Iraq, and I have some comments. First of all, regarding the UN representative’s briefing, which caught my attention, she said that the main reason for what is happening in Iraq is the corruption that everyone is unanimous in its presence. Yes, this is true and very accurate. The first step for gradual reform is the non-participation of the old faces, parties and people in the next government, in accordance with the aspirations of the reference and the rebellious people.”

“I also support the words of the participants in the UN Security Council meeting in terms of restraint; “I call for self-restraint and for non-use of violence and weapons on all sides, and for swift punishment of the perpetrators without regard to their affiliations, in addition to the problem of uncontrolled weapons, but more importantly, the uncontrolled weapon should not be within the framework of the state, and should not be used against opponents and revolutionaries and in consolidating power and the entrenchment of the deep state, especially since the current prime minister is under tremendous pressure in this regard, even though he is the commander of the armed forces, and some gunmen, even if they are within the scope of the state, do not respond to him.”

“I advise the Security Council not to listen to what was said by the Permanent Representative of Iraq at this meeting, whose speech was mostly wrong and was very regrettable,” he said, calling on the UN representative to continue her neutral positions and not to take sides.