Last Tuesday, a group of Sadr Movement members gathered in front of the Green Zone, where government buildings are located in the capital of Iraq, Baghdad, and entered the Parliament building by crossing concrete barriers. With the decision taken today, the sessions in the Iraqi Parliament were suspended until a second decision.
“COUNTRY IS GOING THROUGH TIMES”
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi announced that the sessions in the Iraqi Parliament were suspended until a second decision due to the actions of the supporters of the Sadr Movement in the capital, Baghdad, in the parliament.
In his written statement published in the Iraqi official agency INA, Halbusi stated that the country is going through difficult and sensitive times, and that disagreements between views and even between political segments are a normal situation in democratically-based developed countries.
Emphasizing that the solution is dialogue no matter what the size of the disagreements, Halbusi called on all political parties to prioritize the interests of the state.
In this context, Halbusi stated that the parliamentary sessions were suspended until a second decision based on public security, national responsibilities and constitutional rights, and called for peaceful action and protection of state property.
Halbusi also called on Prime Minister and Chief of General Staff Mustafa al-Kazimi to take necessary measures to protect state institutions and demonstrators.
THEY UPDATED THE GREEN ZONE
The Shiite political and religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who won the October 2021 elections in Iraq, withdrew from politics when he could not form a government. The task of forming a government after Sadr had passed to its rival, the Coordination Framework.
The Coordination Framework announced on 25 July that it had chosen former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Mohammed Shia Sudani, as its prime ministerial candidate.
Muqtada es-Sadr supporters entered the parliament building in Baghdad, raiding the Green Zone, where government buildings and foreign mission representations are located, to protest Sudani, the prime minister candidate of the Iran-backed Shiite Coordination Framework. Protesters started an indefinite sit-in at the parliament building.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health announced that 125 people, 25 of them soldiers and 100 of them civilians, had been injured in the events so far. (AA)