The Iraqi crisis is heating up... Al-Sadr's "message" and the implications of what happened before t

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[size=52]The Iraqi crisis is heating up... Al-Sadr's "message" and the implications of what happened before the Judicial Council[/size]

[size=45]August 24, 2022[/size]
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The Sadrist movement's demonstrators reached the Judicial Council building without resistance
[size=45]Ahmed Al-Adhami, a young man from Baghdad, was preparing to complete his marriage contract at the Personal Status Court in the capital, Baghdad, before chaos broke out in the court porch.[/size]
[size=45]“The police started shouting, the court is closed,” Ahmed says, and there was a sense of fear among the people after the police physically pushed some of them.[/size]
[size=45]He added to Al-Hurra: "We imagined that there was a terrorist threat or a fire, before we discovered that the issue was related to stopping the work of the Iraqi courts by a decision of the Supreme Judicial Council."[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council announced the resumption of its work after announcing it, earlier, on Tuesday, that it had been suspended due to protests held by supporters of the Sadrist movement in front of the council building.[/size]
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 The demonstrators have been in the Green Zone for weeks
[size=45]The extension of the Sadrist sit-in to the headquarters of the Supreme Judicial Council, starting from the seat of Parliament, caused great criticism of the movement, one of which was from the Council itself, which described the open sit-in of the demonstrators before the judiciary as “unconstitutional and illegal behavior,” and blamed the government and “the political party that stands behind This sit-in “legal responsibility” towards the consequences of this behavior.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi political analyst, Ahmed Al-Zubaidi, says that the statement of the Judicial Council is "the most violent language used by an official institution against the Sadrist movement since the arrival of the Knights."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Zubaidi added to the Al-Hurra website that "the statement named the Sadrist demonstrators by name, condemned their actions, and disrupted the work of the Iraqi courts and investigation committees, which effectively paralyzed the activities of the state."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Zubaidi also says that “loading the government responsible has dangerous connotations, as this is the first time that the government has been criticized by the Judicial Council so openly.[/size]
[size=45]The crowds affiliated with the Sadrist movement reached the headquarters of the judiciary without resistance from the security forces.[/size]
[size=45]The developments in Baghdad prompted the caretaker prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, to cut short his visit to Egypt and return to the country, where he called for an immediate meeting of the leaders of the political forces in order to activate the national dialogue procedures and defuse the crisis.[/size]



[size=45]This is the second meeting that Al-Kazemi calls for after a meeting held last week that did not lead to a solution to the crisis, while Al-Kazemi met immediately upon his return, the leader in the coordinating framework, Hadi Al-Amiri.[/size]



[size=45]The Iraqi writer and political analyst, Mustafa Nasser, in an interview with Al-Hurra website, considered that the sit-in was “an expected step that the Sadrist movement waved twice after not responding to a demand to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, expecting that there will be another escalation by the Sadrist movement next week, represented by: "Million rally in Baghdad".[/size]
[size=45]Nasser told Al-Hurra that Al-Kazemi's government is accused of "identifying with Al-Sadr's movement, and even the security forces, some of them identifying with Al-Sadr's forces, and they withdraw as soon as they reach them, while the security forces themselves were suppressing the demonstrators in the 2019 demonstrations without hesitation, using live bullets, snipers and bombs." The tear gas led to dozens of deaths, but the security forces withdrew from the Sadrists and left the square completely open for them.”[/size]
[size=45]He added that "in front of the political forces, there are no security forces that are only confronting the civilian demonstrators exclusively."[/size]
[size=45]Nasser also considered that the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Faiq Zaidan, was expecting this step, as evidenced by his quick response to it by announcing the suspension of the work of the council and the courts in the country, and then quickly issued many arrest warrants for leaders in the Sadrist movement, including Sabah Al-Saadi, the former deputy in The previous session, and Ghayeb Al-Amiri, the deputy resigned in the current session. He also issued a series of arrest warrants against security forces officers who were responsible for security in the vicinity of the Judicial Council.[/size]
[size=45]A statement of the Judicial Council said that the Karkh First Investigation Court is proceeding with the procedures for collecting evidence of the crime of threatening the Federal Court to take legal measures against the perpetrators.[/size]
[size=45]The council also issued an arrest warrant for "Mohammed Rahim Zamil Al-Saadi", who is apparently one of the clerics in the movement.[/size]
[size=45]Nasser said that "the Supreme Judicial Council issued arrest warrants, considering that the sit-in was a threat to the Federal Court and a crime of terrorist crimes, although these two people published publications about the President of the Supreme Judicial Council and did not threaten the Federal Court, so the arrest warrant should have been issued in accordance with Penal Code No. 111 of 69 Not Law Number Four on Terrorism.”[/size]

Messages "Arrived"

[size=45]The Iraqi political analyst, Ali Al-Maamouri, said, "The kilometer distance moved by the sit-in from the seat of the parliament to the headquarters of the Judicial Council carried enormous political implications."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mamouri added to Al-Hurra website that “Al-Sadr says that he can disrupt the entire state if he wants, as the government is paralyzed and Parliament is suspended, and now pressure has reached the judiciary.”[/size]
[size=45]And the leader of the Victory Coalition, Salam al-Zubaidi, considered in an interview with “Al-Hurra” channel that “the message of the Sadrist movement has arrived, but the decision to keep the tents before the Supreme Judicial Council, could be another message, that in the event that new initiatives or solutions are not presented, it can return.” The sit-in and the congestion, and this will cause a political suffocation,” noting that “the judiciary’s involvement in political matters is unacceptable, and it is frustrating for the citizen because he will pay the price of political conflicts.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sadr, by implication, accuses the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Faeq Zeidan, of siding with his rivals from the coordination framework, especially al-Maliki, particularly in the issue of the “blocking third” that prevented al-Sadr from forming a government.[/size]
[size=45]Iraqi journalist Mustafa Masoudi told Al-Hurra that "the Sadrists' withdrawal came after the decision to suspend the court and was followed by the issuance of arrest warrants against Sadrist leaders."[/size]
[size=45]Masoudi believes that "the recent Sadrist movement has shown a decline in the chest that may lead to some sort of resolution of the crisis."[/size]
[size=45]In a statement, the coordinating framework condemned the “dangerous transgression” of the judicial institution, and announced its refusal to receive any message from the Sadrist movement or any invitation for direct dialogue, except after retracting what it described as “the occupation of state institutions.”[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi President, Barham Salih, also called for calm and the use of the language of dialogue to ensure that the country does not slip into unknown and dangerous maze.[/size]
[size=45]As for the US embassy in Baghdad, it urged all parties to remain calm, refrain from violence and resolve disputes in a peaceful manner based on the constitution. It also called on the demonstrators to respect the procedures and properties of Iraqi government institutions.[/size]
[size=45]The level of escalation between the Sadrist movement and its opponents in the coordination framework rose on July 30, when al-Sadr supporters stormed the Iraqi parliament building in the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, demanding the dissolution of parliament and early elections.[/size]
[size=45]In the statement of withdrawal from the headquarters, Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi quoted the leader of the movement as saying in a statement that “there are many reform lovers and those who demand accountability for the corrupt in Iraq’s judiciary, and if there is a lull in that, it is because of the political pressures from the rampart of corruption against them.” .[/size]
[size=45]On August 10, Muqtada al-Sadr demanded the judiciary to dissolve parliament, but the judiciary considered that it did not have this authority.[/size]
[size=45]The so-called Minister of Al-Sadr, Saleh Al-Iraqi, criticized the procedures of the Judicial Council to suspend its work without taking such a step towards the rampant corruption in the state, according to his tweet.[/size]
[size=45]Sadr's opponents, in the coordinating framework that includes the bloc of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Fatah bloc representing the Popular Mobilization, want to form a government before going to early elections.[/size]
[size=45]Supporters of the coordination framework have also held a sit-in in front of the Green Zone, which includes government institutions and Western diplomatic headquarters, since August 12.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi political researcher, Nabil Al-Azzawi, believes that Al-Sadr, with all his tweets, was always in the same vein, either wanting a majority in Parliament, or an opposition, and therefore matters escalated because he does not want consensus, stressing that “no one will benefit from the conflict because the street is neither a place for dialogue nor a place to resolve.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Azzawi said, in an interview with Al-Hurra TV, that "the demonstrators returned and left six tents in the sit-in in front of the Supreme Judicial Council," expecting that "there will be a comprehensive dialogue within hours, not the coming days."[/size]
[size=45]And the Iraqi legal expert, Ali Al-Tamimi, said in his interview with Al-Hurra that "the new developments that occurred on Tuesday, if they continued, might have been a justification for the intervention of the United Nations and the issuance of a Security Council resolution regarding what is happening in the country."[/size]
[size=45]He said that "disruption of constitutional institutions in any country is a justification for interfering in countries because this is considered a breach of internal peace and security."[/size]
[size=45]The United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) commented on the events in a tweet by saying that “the right to peaceful protest is an essential element of democracy,” but “no less important is the affirmation of constitutional compliance and respect for state institutions.”[/size]
[size=45]Since the parliamentary elections in October 2021, Iraq has been living in complete political paralysis with the inability to elect a new president of the republic and form a new government, in light of continuous political differences.[/size]
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