Al-Sadr expels armed supporters...and today Parliament chooses its speaker

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[size=52]Al-Sadr expels armed supporters...and today Parliament chooses its speaker[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrist movement and the Shiite national movement, has decided to expel any of his supporters “who carry weapons against Iraqis” from the country.
This came after a meeting between Sadr in Najaf and cleric Sadr al-Din al-Qabanji, whose house was attacked early yesterday morning.
Saleh Mohammed al-Iraqi, a close associate of Sadr, posted on Telegram that he said: “Anyone who uses weapons in Iraq against Iraqis is using them as a bullet in my chest, and I am innocent of him until the Day of Judgment, and he is considered expelled from the Sadrist family and the Shiite national movement.”
Sadr urged those he called “everyone who loves us and Iraq” to report (anyone who uses weapons) and boycott them, “otherwise he will be considered a collaborator with him, and thus they will be our enemies and the enemies of Iraq.”
Sadr appeared in a photo with al-Qabanji a few hours after the attack on the latter’s house in Najaf.
According to security information, “unknown gunmen attacked the home of the Imam of Friday prayers in Najaf, Sadr al-Din al-Qabanji, in the al-Ghadeer neighborhood in Najaf Governorate, with an RPG, which resulted in the injury of one of the house guards and material damage.”
This came less than 24 hours after demands to respond to “al-Qabanji” for his transgression against “the leader al-Sadr,” according to electronic platforms close to the Sadrist movement.
In the last clash between the leader of the Sadrist movement and some of the movement’s members, he expelled a group called “al-Azhariyyin” last month.
Information leaked that the “expulsion” came after US forces bombed Baghdad airport, despite the truce.
Al-Sadr calls the armed factions hostile to him “impudent militias,” most of which defected from the ranks of the Sadrist movement.
In return, supporters of the movement had been involved in clashes with people who “insulted” al-Sadr or his father in comments or video clips on social media, according to the description of the movement’s audience.
Last May, supporters of Saraya al-Salam, affiliated with al-Sadr, clashed with a person in the al-Ubaidi area east of Baghdad, over a comment on Facebook, which al-Sadr supporters considered “offensive” to the father of the movement’s leader.
“Guns” were used in the clash, and a number of cars were burned, after it became clear that the writer of the comment was a member of the “Loyal Ansar Allah” faction.
Session to elect the president
Politically, the session to elect the parliament speaker, scheduled for Thursday, is now threatened by what happened in Tuesday’s session.
Political parties expected the session to be disrupted due to the failure to pass “4 controversial laws” in the last session.
On Tuesday, the parliament adjourned its session to an unknown date due to a verbal altercation between Sunni representatives and in response to the law “returning properties to their owners.”
After the Sunni bloc representatives withdrew from the parliament session, the parliament speaker decided to adjourn the session until further notice.
The agenda for Tuesday’s session included voting on four important controversial laws, namely (returning properties to their owners, amending the personal status law, general amnesty, and the service and retirement law for the Popular Mobilization Forces fighters).
The Kurds are demanding a law to return properties to their owners, while the Shiite blocs want to pass two laws (Personal Status and Popular Mobilization Law), while the Sunni blocs are adopting a general amnesty law.
In the midst of this, the Coordination Framework had called for a session to elect the Speaker of Parliament today, Thursday.
But events became complicated after the sudden withdrawal of the head of the Sovereignty Party, Khamis al-Khanjar, coinciding with his preparation to hold an “extraordinary meeting” to determine the Sunni candidate to assume the presidency of parliament.
It is believed that al-Khanjar withdrew due to investigations into his affiliation with the “banned Baath Party,” an accusation that is not the first time that the head of the Sovereignty Party has been pursued.
At the same time, the head of the Diyala Provincial Council, Omar al-Karwi, who is from al-Khanjar’s party, was ousted after a long struggle that lasted for more than 9 months to form the local government there.
There was fierce competition between al-Khanjar and the Progress Party, led by Mohammed al-Halbousi, the former speaker of parliament, to appoint the governor of Diyala.
Ibrahim al-Dulaimi, a political advisor and close to the Sovereignty Party, believes that “the one who dug the hole for al-Khanjar is a former ally and a current enemy,” in a reference that was understood to mean al-Halbousi.
Al-Khanjar was waiting with Muthanna al-Samarrai, the head of the “Azm” coalition, for the session to elect the parliament speaker and pass Salem al-Issawi.
But according to Rahim al-Aboudi, a leader in Al-Hikma, there is a “Shiite-Sunni-Kurdish agreement” on Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, according to a call with (Al-Mada).
However, this agreement does not mean that al-Mashhadani will reach the position, as it is conditional on the withdrawal of Salem al-Issawi, who is still clinging to the nomination.
The leader in the Azm Alliance, Haider al-Mulla, called on all representatives, specifically from the Sunni blocs, to “attend and vote and block the path of those who are trying to keep the first position of the component vacant,” according to a tweet on “X.”
Al-Mulla did not address the agreement on a single candidate, while Representative Sherwan Dubardani, from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said that “the Progress Party refuses to enter the election session unless Salem al-Issawi withdraws.”[/size]
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