Al Sadr gives an ultimatum of 72 hours to sign a political agreement in Iraq

The cleric demands that the political forces that collaborated with the US during its occupation of the country abstain

Aug. 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Iraqi cleric Muqtada al Sadr has given the country’s political forces a period of 72 hours to sign an agreement that ends the political crisis on the condition that any formation that has collaborated with the United States since its occupation refrain from participating. of the country in 2003.

Al Sadr thus hardens his requests even more to sit at the dialogue table with the rest of the groups. The cleric, who has spent weeks mobilizing his hundreds of thousands of supporters in Baghdad to the point of having taken Parliament twice, demands the dissolution of the chamber and the declaration of new elections, aware of the support he enjoys as leader of the formation most voted in the last October elections.

Since then, the country remains without a government due to deep discrepancies between the Sadrist bloc and the rest of the formations.

“There is something more important than dissolving Parliament and holding early elections: the non-participation of all the parties and personalities that have participated in the political process since the US occupation in 2003 until today,” one of the elements closest to Al Sadr, Mohamed Salí, in a statement collected by the Rudaw agency.

“If there is no agreement within 72 hours, there will be no room for reform, and we will disregard what happens in the future,” he added.

The great losers of the last elections, the pro-Iranian parties, as well as other rivals of the cleric, have asked that he open the door to a concentration government, but the clergyman demands instead a majority government, proportional to the results of the elections.

In protest at the political blockade, Al Sadr’s deputies withdrew from Parliament to leave their majority in the hands of precisely the pro-Iranian parties, concentrated in the so-called Coordination Framework.

The situation has reached such a point that the Supreme Court of Iraq will meet next Tuesday, August 30, to decide whether it is competent to request the dissolution of the Iraqi Parliament. Although the court has insisted from the first moment that it is not competent to even rule on the dissolution for violating the separation of powers.

However, pressure from Al Sadr supporters — who on Tuesday decided to stage a sit-in in protest at the Iraqi Judicial Council headquarters — ended up forcing this meeting, even if it was to issue a firm opinion on the lawsuit filed by the political leader of Al Sadr’s movement, Nasar al Rubaie.