BAGHDAD — Hundreds of followers of powerful
Iraqi Shiite preacher Moqtada Al-Sadr camped at the country’s parliament Sunday
for a second day, protesting against corruption and political mismanagement.
اضافة اعلان
Despite tear gas, water cannon, and baking
temperatures that touched 47°C, they stormed the complex on Saturday after
pulling down heavy concrete barricades on roads leading to
Baghdad’s fortified
Green Zone of diplomatic and government buildings.
The health ministry said at least 100 protesters and
25 security personnel were hurt in the confrontation.
Nearly 10 months after October elections, Iraq is
still without a new government despite intense negotiations between factions.
Analysts have said Sadr, a mercurial cleric who once
led a militia against US and Iraqi government forces, is using street protests
to signal that his views must be taken into account in any government
formation.
Both the
UN and EU warned about escalating tensions.
The immediate trigger for the occupation was the
decision by a rival Shiite bloc, which is pro-Iran, to pick former cabinet
minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani for the prime minister’s post.
On Sunday morning, the demonstrators marked the
Muslim month of Muharram, a traditional Shiite celebration, with religious
chants and collective meals.
Volunteers distributed soup, hard-boiled eggs,
bread, and water to the protesters.
Some had spent the night inside the air-conditioned
building — which dates from dictator Saddam Hussein’s era — with blankets
spread out on the marble floors.
Others took to the gardens, on plastic mats under
palm trees.
Logjam
In multi-confessional and
multi-ethnic Iraq, government formation has involved complex negotiations since
a 2003 US-led invasion toppled Hussein.
Sadr’s bloc emerged from elections in October as the
biggest parliamentary faction, but still far short of a majority.
In June, his 73 lawmakers quit in a bid to break a
logjam over the establishment of a new government.
That led to a pro-Iran bloc becoming the largest in
parliament, but still there was no agreement on naming a new prime minister,
president or cabinet.
The occupation that began on Saturday was the second
time within a week that
Sadr’s supporters had forced their way into the
legislative chamber.
They left on Sadr’s orders last Wednesday after
about two hours inside.
The protests are the latest challenge for a country
trying to overcome decades of war and now facing the impact of climate change.
Despite oil wealth and elevated global crude prices,
Iraq remains hobbled by corruption, unemployment and other woes, which sparked
a youth-led protest movement in 2019.
As a result of past deals, the Sadrists also have
representatives at the highest levels of government ministries and have been
accused by their opponents of being as corrupt as other political forces.
But protesters see in Sadr an opposition figure and
champion of the anti-corruption fight.
Sudani is the
prime ministerial choice of the Coordination Framework alliance which includes
lawmakers from the party of Sadr’s longtime foe, ex-prime minister Nuri
Al-Maliki.
It also represents the pro-Iran former paramilitary
group Hashed Al-Shaabi, now integrated into the regular forces.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the EU expressed
concern about “the ongoing protests and their potential escalation”.
The EU called for “constructive political dialogue”.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged
“peaceful and inclusive dialogue” to form an effective national government, his
spokesperson said.
Iraqi Kurdish authorities in the country’s north
offered to host talks in their capital Erbil.
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