IRAQ — Iraq’s powerful Shiite Muslim leader
Moqtada Al-Sadr on Saturday said “all parties” including his own should give up government
positions in order to help resolve a months-long political crisis.
اضافة اعلان
Since the aftermath of the US-led invasion of 2003
that toppled longtime dictator Saddam Hussein,
Iraq has been governed under a
sectarian power-sharing system.
But since elections in October last year, political
deadlock has left the country without a new government, prime minister or
president, due to disagreement between factions over forming a coalition.
Sadr and his supporters have been calling for
parliament to be dissolved and for new elections, but on Saturday he said doing
so was not “so important”.
Instead, it is “more important” that “all parties
and figures who have been part of the political process from the American
occupation in 2003 until now no longer participate”, Sadr said on Twitter.
“That includes the Sadrist movement,” he added.
“I am ready to sign an agreement to this effect
within 72 hours,” he said, warning that without such a move, “there would no
longer be anymore room for reforms.”
He did not indicate who he expected would lead a
future government.
Sadr’s supporters have for weeks been staging a
sit-in outside Iraq’s parliament, after initially storming the legislature’s
interior, to press for their demands.
On Tuesday, they also pitched tents outside the
judicial body’s headquarters in Baghdad for several hours.
Sadr’s rivals in the pro-Iran Coordination Framework
want a new head of government to be appointed before any new polls are held.
Caretaker Prime Minister
Mustafa Al-Kadhimi earlier this
month convened crisis talks with party leaders, but they were boycotted by the
Sadrists.
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