{"id":14611,"date":"2018-09-10T20:23:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T20:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14611"},"modified":"2018-09-10T20:23:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T20:23:55","slug":"iraq-pm-visits-basra-after-week-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14611","title":{"rendered":"Iraq PM visits Basra after week of violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBASRA: Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi sought to ease tensions in southern Iraq\u00a0 on Monday with a visit to Basra, rocked by deadly protests over alleged corruption and government neglect.<\/p>\n

\nAt least 14 demonstrators were killed and many government and political buildings torched, calm returned to the city late on Saturday as Al-Abadi\u2019s rivals in Baghdad said they wanted to form Iraq\u2019s next government without him.<\/p>\n

\nFor five days last week protesters had flooded the streets, clashing with security forces and torching the provincial headquarters, the Iranian consulate and the offices of armed groups.<\/p>\n

\nOrganisers have attempted to dissociate themselves from the violence and called for a halt to the demonstrations. Witnesses and local officials say the protests were hijacked by various armed groups.<\/p>\n

\nOn Monday, Al-Abadi met with officials in Basra who have accused Baghdad of neglecting the southern province and failing to redistribute oil wealth.<\/p>\n

\nHis visit came just 48 hours after the prime minister came under fire at an emergency meeting of parliament, where he faced calls to resign as his alliance with Muqtada Al-Sadr, one of the country\u2019s most popular cleric, crumbled over the deadly unrest.<\/p>\n

\nAl Sadr distanced himself from his one-time ally Al-Abadi, while a rival alliance of pro-Iranian former paramilitary fighters said it would work with Al-Sadr to form a new government that excludes the premier.<\/p>\n

\nThe announcement endangered Al-Abadi\u2019s hopes of holding onto his post.<\/p>\n

\nThe embattled premier shot back on Monday from Basra by accusing unnamed \u201cpolitical parties who have armed wings\u201d of having tried \u201cto set Basra province on fire,\u201d according to state broadcaster Al-Iraqiya.<\/p>\n

\nHis remarks came as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiite majority, hinted on Monday that he was opposed to Al-Abadi staying in the post.<\/p>\n

\nSistani, who is widely respected across Iraq, spoke of the political and economic challenges facing the country and said the next prime minister should not be someone who has already served.<\/p>\n

\nIn Basra, Al-Abadi also denounced violence against diplomatic missions, Al-Iraqiya reported.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAttacking a consulate or diplomatic post is unacceptable,\u201d Al-Abadi was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

\nProtesters on Friday stormed Iran\u2019s consulate, which had been evacuated in advance.<\/p>\n

\nIran is a key power broker in Iraq and many of the militias and political parties whose offices were torched in last week\u2019s unrest are known to be close to Tehran.<\/p>\n

\nBasra has been at the centre of protests that broke out in July in the southern province before spreading to other parts of the country, as demonstrators demanded jobs and condemned corruption among Iraqi officials.<\/p>\n

\nAnger in Basra flared on Tuesday over a growing health crisis, after more than 30,000 people were hospitalised by pollution in the city\u2019s water supply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BASRA: Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi sought to ease tensions in southern Iraq\u00a0 on Monday with a visit to Basra, rocked by deadly protests over alleged corruption and government neglect. At least 14 demonstrators were killed and many government and political buildings torched, calm returned to the city late on Saturday as Al-Abadi\u2019s rivals in Baghdad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}