Outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi announced the formation of a commission of inquiry to identify those responsible for arming those who shot demonstrators as bloody clashes erupted in the capital Baghdad last night.
Al-Kazemi said in a televised speech to the Iraqi people that “the reality that has been achieved in Iraq requires an honest and frank stance in order to face it and confront it”, expressing his pain at the situation his country has fallen into from for political conflict.
Al-Kazemi also warned unnamed parties that if they want to “continue to provoke chaos, conflicts, divisions and rivalries and not listen to the voice of reason”, he will make his “national step” by declaring the post of prime minister vacant at the appropriate time, in in accordance with article 81 of the Iraqi constitution, and holding those parties accountable to the Iraqis and to history.
He pointed out that his government had adopted a state arms limitation policy more than two years ago “despite all the accusations, appeals and rockets” leveled against it, stressing that “the Iraqi blood shed yesterday serves as a warning to every Iraqi that today we must face with bitter facts and put weapons in fact under the authority of the state, and not a slogan and demand.
