Key Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr spoke today before a crowd of some 200,000 demonstrators outside Baghdad’s Green Zone, demanding the ouster of the Abadi government, and the fulfillment of previous pledges to tackle corruption.
Sadr is an influential religious leader, as well as the leader of Iraq’s second largest political bloc, which holds 34 seats in parliament. With Abadi already under fire by a number of other factions, this adds pressure for him to step down, potentially leading to new elections.
A top Sadr aide, also speaking at the rally, accused Abadi of dragging his feet on reforms, with a promise to replace certain political officials with technocrats going unfulfilled. He warned the public wasn’t going ro keep accepting promises that don’t lead to reforms.
This is the second week in a row Sadr supporters have organized a major rally. Last week’s saw 100,000 people, and the significant growth of this week’s crowd suggests that calls for reform are a winning issue for Sadr, and will likely oblige Abadi to make some sort of move to placate the public.
It shouldn’t be hard to guess what Iran wants Baghdad to do…upon whom will you call to liberate the country from Daesh? Them or us?
Seems healthy to me. The Iraquis have to take back their country – free of outside interference.
Hopefully, he will be strong against ISIS, and Wahabism.
American proxy Sadr ups the ante against the government just when the latter is bringing in Russians to deal with ISIS. Americans have unlimited resources indeed.
“American proxy Sadr…”
What planet are you from?
Planet Zion. If you haven’t tracked how Sadr has transformed over a decade, you’re bound to talk about planets.
While many in his militias took part in the bloody sectarian war, I believe Sadr himself always wanted to build bridges with Sunni Iraq. He organized a relief convoy during the first attack on Fallujah. His nationalism was one of the things that made him anathema to US policy makers. From the beginning, they wanted a divided, weakened Iraq.