News Desk :
Powerful Iraqi Shiite preacher Moqtada Sadr Monday urged other factions to support a protest that has seen his followers occupy parliament in a dispute over who should name the next prime minister.
Nearly 10 months after elections, the oil-rich country is still without a new government due to the repeated failure of negotiations and the en-masse resignation last month of Sadr’s bloc-the largest in parliament. Iraq has a hard time escaping from this tragic past. Many Iraqi protesters want an end to corruption and have hope for the future. They were promised a kind of peace dividend when the war on ISIS largely ended in 2017, but it never came. Instead, The beleaguered country has suffered continued chaos. Much of this is due to the involvement of outside powers like its neighbors Iran, and even Turkey, reports AFP.
Despite oil wealth and elevated global crude prices, Iraq remains hobbled by corruption, unemployment and other woes, which sparked a youth-led protest movement in 2019.
As a result of past deals, the Sadrists also have representatives at the highest levels of government ministries and have been accused by their opponents of being as corrupt as other political forces.
But supporters of Sadr view him as a champion of the anti-corruption fight.
One of them, Oum Hussein, 42, said the sit-in sought a government of “people with integrity who serve the
country”, while Sadr’s opponents select politicians “known for corruption”.
Even, 80-year-old Iraqi Sheikh Ali Ward also joined thousands of Iraqis in 2019 against bad economic conditions and the spread of financial and administrative corruption.
Ward was injured in 2019 protests and was taken to hospital by his fellow protesters.
Since then, Ward has been demanding reforms and an end to corruption in the country.
“The people suffer from unemployment and a lack of health services, nothing has changed since 2003, nothing. I have participated in all protests,” he said.
A spokesperson for the European Union expressed concern about “the ongoing protests and their potential escalation”, while United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged “peaceful and inclusive dialogue,” according to his spokesman.
Semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish authorities in the country’s north meanwhile offered to host talks in their capital Arbil.
