For the second time this week, the Iraqi Parliament in Baghdad was invaded on Saturday July 30 by thousands of supporters of the Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr who intend to stay there “until further notice”, while Iraq is going through a period of political instability pending the appointment of a new president and a new prime minister.
With our correspondent in Baghdad, Lucile Wassermann
The strategy of the Sadrists is now quite clear: they will not leave the precincts of Parliament before winning. And after a day and a night there, there is little chance that the police will intervene to dislodge them.
These Sadrists, who reject the candidate for the post of head of government presented by their adversaries, want a Prime Minister who suits them or else new elections only ten months after the previous ones.
The opposing camp divided
But in the aftermath of the assault on Parliament, it will above all be necessary to look at the reactions of the opposing political camp, which is quite divided. Some call for the organization of a counter-demonstration which could very quickly turn into a direct confrontation between the two camps. The worst-case scenario for Iraq.
Other great leaders of this bloc, on the other hand, such as Nouri al-Maliki, the former Prime Minister, who has been very warlike in recent days, have dissociated themselves from his appeals and called for calm and above all for negotiations and to dialogue with Moqtada Sadr to try to find a solution. It now remains to be seen whether the Shia cleric will grasp that outstretched hand as he refuses to negotiate with his opponents since the election results last October.
What we can rather expect in the coming days or weeks is an extension of this mobilization movement to other sectors of society which also no longer support this state of affairs.
Miriam Benraad, Professor of International Relations at Schiller International University in Paris