Supporters of the Sadrist movement on Tuesday expanded their sit-in in front of the Supreme Judicial Council in Baghdad’s Green Zone, according to a statement released by the Sadrist movement’s media, in an escalation of an ongoing political crisis. for over 10 months.
The statement said the movement’s supporters “announced their sit-in in front of the Supreme Judicial Council until reaching” the list of demands they had made, including the “dissolution of parliament” and the “depoliticization of the judiciary,” according to photographs posted by the movement on communication platforms. The official Iraqi news agency reported that protesters had begun setting up tents in front of the country’s highest judiciary.
The sit-in is expanding as Sadrist supporters have been holding a sit-in near the Iraqi parliament for the past three weeks, demanding the dissolution of parliament and early elections. But Sadr’s opponents, in a coordination that includes former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s bloc and Fatah’s People’s Appeal bloc, for their part, want to form a government before early elections are held.
Supporters of the framework of coordination, in turn, have been holding a sit-in since August 12 in front of the “Green Zone”, which includes government agencies and Western diplomatic headquarters.
The level of escalation between the two sides has increased since the end of July, when both sides exchanged pressure on the street and in statements, but the matter did not escalate into violence.
Ten months after the legislative elections, the political forces of Iraq still cannot agree on the election of a new president and the formation of a new government. On August 10, Muqtada al-Sadr demanded that the judiciary dissolve parliament within a week, but the judiciary later felt that it had no such authority.
Since then, attempts at dialogue between the two sides have so far failed to produce any results. Leaders of Iraqi political blocs held a rally at the Government Palace in Baghdad, which was boycotted by the Sadrist movement and called by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi in an attempt to find a way out of the crisis. The Sadrist movement has repeatedly reiterated its rejection of dialogue. Al-Sadr tweeted two days ago that he had submitted “a proposal to the UN for a public dialogue … we have not seen a concrete response.” “They don’t expect us after this new secret dialogue,” he added, “I made many concessions for the sake of the people and civil peace. We look forward to what they can do to fix what has been corrupted, to save Iraq.”
