Without his current, al-Sadr announces giving his opponents a chance to form a government

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[size=52]Without his current, al-Sadr announces giving his opponents a chance to form a government[/size]

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The quorum of Parliament sessions was disrupted due to the continuing political differences
[size=45]Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has announced his retreat for the next forty days and given his Iranian-backed rivals the opportunity to form the country's next government.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sadr's sudden move comes against the backdrop of the ongoing political stalemate in Iraq, five months after the general elections.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sadr's offer came in a tweet in which he also called on his followers not to interfere "positively or negatively" while his rivals, the Coordinating Framework Forces, an alliance of Shiite parties backed by Iran, are trying to form a government together.[/size]
[size=45]This position implies a signal to al-Sadr's opponents to follow up on the allies of the Sadrist movement, the Kurds and Sunnis, in possible negotiations. There was no immediate response from the forces of the "coordinating framework" to Sadr's offer.[/size]
[size=45]Iraq's political parties are deadlocked, and al-Sadr - the winner of the elections - has been unable to form a coalition government. Al-Sadr attacked his opponents, saying that they "obstructed the process and are still obstructing it."[/size]
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[size=45]The two sides differ over the selection of the candidate for the post of president, an obstacle that may also extend to the premiership. It is also not clear which party constitutes the largest bloc in Parliament due to the unclear and shifting loyalties of some lawmakers and parties.[/size]
[size=45]The 40-day window presented by al-Sadr will begin on the first day of Ramadan, and is expected to begin at the end of this week, depending on the sighting of the new crescent.[/size]
[size=45]The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, which means that the time frame provided by al-Sadr will extend beyond Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from dawn to sunset.[/size]
[size=45]Farhad Alaeddin, head of the Iraq Advisory Council, a policy research institute, tweeted that this development was a "clear and bold challenge" for its competitors while it was a "test for partners."[/size]
[size=45]It was not immediately clear how sincere Al-Sadr's offer was.
The cleric, with a strong grassroots base, won the most seats in the elections but not enough to declare a parliamentary majority.[/size]
[size=45]Parties allied with Iran, including those of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, became his main rivals.[/size]
[size=45]The parliament session last Saturday failed to reach the two-thirds quorum necessary to elect a president. The session was largely boycotted by legislators associated with the coordinating framework forces.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sadr's move is a gamble because the failure of the coordination framework will give his alliance, Sairoon, great influence, but his success will transform the Sadr party into the role of the opposition.[/size]
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