{"id":41382,"date":"2019-10-29T22:22:18","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T22:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41382"},"modified":"2019-10-29T22:22:18","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T22:22:18","slug":"cleric-al-sadr-joins-iraq-protests-as-political-crisis-deepens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41382","title":{"rendered":"Cleric Al-Sadr joins Iraq protests as political crisis deepens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nNAJAF: The Iraqi cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr joined thousands of demonstrators in the holy city of Najaf on Tuesday amid a spiralling political crisis sparked by deadly anti-government protests.
At least 240 people have died and 8,000 been wounded since demonstrations broke out on Oct. 1 over unemployment and corruption, before evolving into calls for the government to quit.
Al-Sadr has spearheaded demands for Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi\u2019s resignation and early parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n

\nHe later called on his biggest political rival to work with him on ousting the country’s prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi.\u00a0Al-Sadr, who leads parliament’s largest bloc, asked Hadi Al-Amiri, leader of the second-largest, to help him introduce a vote of no confidence.<\/p>\n

\nOn Tuesday, Al-Sadr\u00a0was spotted by an AFP correspondent amid thousands of anti-government demonstrators in his native Najaf, a holy city in southern Iraq.
He was seen in a white car in the city just after airport sources told AFP he had landed from neighboring Iran.
Al-Sadr himself is one of the current government\u2019s two main sponsors, after his Sairoon bloc won the largest share of parliament\u2019s 329 seats in a vote last year.
But he tweeted in support of an initial six-day wave of protests that rocked the country early this month and resumed last week.
Demonstrators have so far been unimpressed by premier Abdul-Mahdi\u2019s laundry list of reforms, which includes hiring drives and more social welfare.
Instead, they have increasingly pushed for early elections, a new government and a reworked constitution.
After failing to meet several times, parliament on Monday agreed to explore early polls and constitutional amendments, summoning Abdel Mahdi for questioning.
They reiterated their demand Tuesday, calling on him to appear at parliament headquarters \u201cimmediately.\u201d
In footage aired on local media, MPs from the largest bloc of Sairoon \u2014 tied to Al-Sadr \u2014 could be heard chanting, \u201cAt once! At once!\u201c
The parliament is deeply divided, with Al-Sadr backing protests while second-largest bloc Fatah \u2014 the political branch of the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary force \u2014 backs the government.
Several Hashed offices have been torched in recent days in southern Iraq in what observers say is likely an escalation of the rivalry between Al-Sadr and the Hashed.
Abdul-Mahdi has urged Al-Sadr to agree with Fatah chief Hadi Al-Ameri on a way forward.
\u201cIf the goal of elections is to change the government, then there is a shorter way: for you to agree with Mr. Ameri to form a new government,\u201d the premier wrote in a public letter to the cleric on Tuesday.
\u201cOnce this agreement is reached, the prime minister can submit his resignation and the new government can receive its orders in days, if not hours,\u201d said Abdel Mahdi.
He dismissed the idea of bringing forward polls, saying, \u201cBut the fate of early elections would be unknown. Will its results be definitive?\u201c
The chaotic protest movement is unprecedented in Iraq, both because of its apparently independent nature and the ensuing violence.
The first wave of protests starting October 1 left 157 people dead, mostly protesters in Baghdad, according to a government probe which acknowledged \u201cexcessive force\u201d was used.
A second wave starting Thursday has left at least 83 dead.
Overnight, at least one protester was killed in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, said the Iraqi Human Rights Commission.
The city\u2019s forensics chief told AFP a 24-year-old had been shot in the head, but the governor and security forces said it was \u201ccategorically false\u201d anyone had died.
Rallies escalated on Tuesday, with trade unions representing teachers, lawyers and dentists all declaring strikes lasting several days.
In Iraq\u2019s southern cities of Hilla, Diwaniyah, Kut and Nasiriyah, most government offices remained closed on Tuesday for lack of staff.
Students gathered in those cities for their third day of demonstrations, ignoring orders by the higher education minister to return to class.
In the capital, protesters were massing on a key bridge linking their main gathering place in Tahrir Square to the Green Zone, where government offices and foreign embassies are based.
They managed to breach a first barrier set up by security forces, who have been holding back demonstrators there in recent days with volleys of tear gas.
Many had spent the night in tents or abandoned buildings in Tahrir in defiance of a curfew declared by the army.
\u201cTheir curfew changed nothing,\u201d 30-year-old protester Duaa said on Tuesday morning.
\u201cDid the government think we would stay at home? No way.\u201d
About 60 percent of Iraq\u2019s 40-million population is under the age of 25.
But youth unemployment stands at 25 percent, while one in five people live below the poverty line, despite the vast oil wealth of OPEC\u2019s second-largest crude producer.
\u201cWe don\u2019t want this government any more. We want a transitional government and constitutional change,\u201d another female protester said.
\u201cI\u2019m a teacher, I have a salary, I have a house \u2014 but the young unemployed people are my brothers and relatives, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAJAF: The Iraqi cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr joined thousands of demonstrators in the holy city of Najaf on Tuesday amid a spiralling political crisis sparked by deadly anti-government protests.At least 240 people have died and 8,000 been wounded since demonstrations broke out on Oct. 1 over unemployment and corruption, before evolving into calls for the government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41382","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\/41382","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=41382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}