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Several hundred supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr launched a sit-in outside Iraq’s top judicial body on Tuesday, ratcheting up tensions in a showdown with a rival Shiite alliance.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi cut short a visit to Egypt, where he had been due to take part in a five-nation summit, to return home to monitor developments.
Kadhemi “called on all political parties to calm down and to take advantage of the opportunity for national dialogue to get the country out of its current crisis”, a statement from his office said.
The standoff between rival Shiite factions has triggered an intensifying war of words, but so far no violence.
The Sadrists, who have already been camped outside parliament for the past three weeks, pitched tents outside the gates of the judicial body’s Baghdad headquarters, AFP correspondents reported.
They carried placards demanding the dissolution of parliament and new elections, 10 months after an inconclusive poll failed to deliver a majority government.
>> Who are the Shiite politicians vying to rule Iraq amid its political impasse?
Even though his political bloc has taken part in previous administrations, securing top jobs in government ministries, Sadr himself has managed to keep above the political fray and is lionised by his supporters as an outsider dedicated to the fight against a corrupt elite.
“We want to stamp out corruption,” said Abu Karar al-Alyawi, a Sadr supporter among those demonstrating on Tuesday.
“The judicial system is being blackmailed or maybe it’s corrupt too.”
On August 10, Sadr gave the Supreme Judicial Council one week to dissolve parliament to end the political deadlock but the council ruled that it lacked the authority to do so.
In the face of Tuesday’s protest, the council announced it was suspending work until…
Source : france24
