BAGHDAD — In a new power play,
Iraq’s Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr called for
traditional Friday prayers to take place on a vast square inside the Green Zone
where his followers have occupied parliament for seven days.
اضافة اعلان
A similar call
from Sadr in mid-July drew hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshippers to
Sadr City, a Baghdad district named after his assassinated father, amid tensions
between his political bloc and a rival Shiite faction that is backed by Iran.
The latest
mass-prayer call by Sadr, a longtime political and religious force in the
war-scarred country, follows his demand for early elections — a possibility
that the rival bloc says it is conditionally open to, despite the last national
polls only taking place less than 10 months ago.
Months of
post-election negotiations between Sadr’s bloc — the largest in parliament —
and other factions failed to lead to agreement on a new government, prime
minister and president.
Sadr’s bloc
emerged from the October polls as the biggest parliamentary faction, but still
far short of a majority.
In June, his 73
lawmakers quit in a bid to break the logjam. That led to a rival Shiite bloc,
the pro-
Iran Coordination Framework, becoming the largest in parliament.
The Coordination
Framework’s nomination of former cabinet minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani as
prime minister angered the Sadrists and triggered their occupation of the
legislature.
On Wednesday
Sadr called for new polls, and his adversaries in the Coordination Framework on
Thursday night said they were conditionally open to that idea.
In a brief
statement, the Coordination Framework said it “affirms its support to any
constitutional way to resolve the political crises and realize the interests of
the people, including early elections.”
But “a national
consensus on the question and providing a safe environment” were pre-requisites
for such polls, it said.
Above all, it
stressed the importance of “not disrupting the functioning” of constitutional
institutions — a clear reference to the occupation of parliament by Sadr’s
followers.
The Coordination
Framework includes lawmakers from the party of former prime minister
Nuri Al-Maliki, a longtime foe of Sadr, and the Hashed Al-Shaabi, a pro-Iran
ex-paramilitary network now integrated into the security forces.
Oil-rich Iraq is
struggling to move past decades of war, but is beset by rampant corruption,
crumbling infrastructure and unemployment.
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