White House: Iraq Must Hold Early Elections

Warns Iraq must also halt violence against protesters

Throughout weeks of recent anti-government protests in Iraq the US wasn’t immediately clear on their position. It was only following weekend reports of Iran trying to save the current government and forestall early elections that the US declared itself firmly on the side of early elections.

The White House demanded that the Iraqi government immediately fulfill talk of reforms and early elections by President Salih, further demanding an immediate halt on violence against Iraqi protesters.

These are somewhat uncharacteristic positions for the US to take on Iraq, as generally they, like Iran, prefer to prolong the survival of governments at any cost, and they’ve rarely presented anything like opposition to crackdowns on public protests before.

President Salih’s office has reportedly finalized the new elections draft law, and would allow for early elections. The new law would reduce the minimum age for MPs to 25, and reduce the size of parliament.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.