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Iraqi prime minister says he will resign amid continued bloodshed at protests

2 hours ago

Iraqi prime minister says he will resign amid continued bloodshed at protests
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi. (Photo: Prime Minister's Press Office)
 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi announced on Friday he would submit his resignation to parliament after the country witnessed one of the bloodiest days of national protests that began two months ago.

Abdul Mahdi said he had listened “carefully” listened to a Friday sermon given by a representative of Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, who called on the national legislature to “reconsider its support” for the current government after a day of unprecedented violence.

“In response to [Sistani's] call, and to facilitate its completion as soon as possible, I will present an official letter to parliament requesting the resignation of the current government to enable parliament to weigh its options,” said Abdul Mahdi.

On Thursday, Iraqi security forces killed upwards of forty demonstrators in the capital of Baghdad and in the southern cities of Nassiriya and Najaf. Late Wednesday, protesters torched an Iranian consulate in Najaf, the holy Shia city where Sistani is based.

Protester deaths have topped 400, according to a Reuters tally.

When they began taking to the streets at the start of October, demonstrators expressed stark grievances about the lack of jobs, poor government services, and widespread corruption. They have since called for radical change in Iraq’s political system, which they say fails to address their needs, but instead serves the interests of a small governing elite.

At least three influential political leaders seem to be backing a bid to remove Abdul Mahdi, including clerics Muqtada al-Sadr and Ammar al-Hakim and former Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi.

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Iraqi Prime Minister to Step Down as Deadly Protests Continue

 
 Basnews English 29/11/2019 - 16:04 Published in Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister to Step Down as Deadly Protests Continue
 

ERBIL — Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said he will hand in his resignation to the country’s parliament.

Abdul Mahdi explained in a short statement on Friday that he hopes the parliament will explore all the option after his resignation to address the current unrest in the country and meet protesters’ demands.

The decision comes a day after one of the bloodiest days in Iraqi protests. Earlier on Thursday, at least 33 people were killed in Dhi Qar’s Nasiriyah city where the security forces opened fire at protesters.

In the Shia holy city of Najaf, 11 people were killed the same day. Over 230 others were injured across the south of Iraq.

PM Abdul Mahdi said his decision to resign was to respond to a call from the supreme Shia leader who had called for immediate actions to bring about reforms, holding an election.

BasNews has learned that the head of PM’s office has also handed in his resignation.

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IRAQ PM SAYS HE WILL QUIT AFTER CLERIC'S CALL BUT VIOLENCE RAGES ON

Demonstrations continue
FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi speaks during a symbolic funeral ceremony of Major General Ali al-Lami, who commands the Iraqi Federal Police's Fourth Division, who was killed in Salahuddin, in Baghdad, Iraq October 23, 2019. REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily

4 Hours ago 

http://nrttv.com/En/News.aspx?id=17994&MapID=2

 

SULAIMANI — Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi announced his resignation on Friday (November 29) after the country’s top Shia Muslim cleric urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest.

The move was the latest twist in an unprecedented crisis for war-weary Iraq, which has struggled to recover from decades of conflict, civil unrest and sanctions, according to Reuters.

Young, unemployed and unarmed protesters have led calls for a rehaul of a political system they say is endemically corrupt and serves foreign powers, especially Baghdad’s ally Tehran.

The departure of Abdul Mahdi could be a blow for Iranian influence after Iran’s militia allies and its own commanders intervened last month to keep the premier in place despite mass anti-government unrest.

Iraq’s biggest unrest for years pits protesters from Shia heartlands in Baghdad and the south against a corrupt Shia-dominated ruling elite seen as pawns of Iran.

Iraq’s current political class is drawn mainly from powerful Shia politicians, clerics and paramilitary leaders including many who lived in exile before a US-led invasion overthrew Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 - including Abdul Mahdi.

“In response to this (the cleric’s) call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand (to accept) my resignation from the leadership of the current government,” a statement signed by Abdul Mahdi said.

The statement did not say when he would resign. Parliament is to convene an emergency session on Sunday to discuss the crisis.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani earlier urged parliament to considering withdrawing its support for Abdul Mahdi’s government to stem spiralling violence.

Iraqi protesters celebrated the imminent departure of Abdul Mahdi, but said they would not stop their demonstrations until the whole of the political class was removed. Violence continued in southern Iraq.

 “Abdul Mahdi’s resignation is just the beginning. We’ll stay in the streets until the entire government has gone, and all the rest of the corrupt politicians,” said Mustafa Hafidh, a protester at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.

“It’s not enough,” said Ali al-Sayeda, another demonstrator. “We need them all out, root and branch. We can’t let up the pressure.”

 

VIOLENCE UNABATED

Security forces meanwhile shot dead at least three people in the southern city of Nassiriya as clashes continued. In Najaf, unidentified armed men shot live rounds at demonstrators sending dozens scattering.

Iraqi forces have killed nearly 400 mostly young, unarmed demonstrators people since mass anti-government protests broke out on Oct. 1. More than a dozen members of the security forces have also died in clashes.

The burning of Iran’s consulate in the holy city of Najaf on Wednesday escalated violence and drew a brutal response from security forces who shot dead more than 60 people nationwide on Thursday.

Sistani, who only weighs in on politics in times of crisis and wields huge influence over public opinion, on Friday warned against an explosion of civil strife and tyranny. He urged government forces to stop killing protests and protesters themselves to reject all violence.

The government “appears to have been unable to deal with the events of the past two months ... parliament, from which the current government emerged, must reconsider its choices and do what’s in the interest of Iraq,” a representative of Sistani said in a televised sermon.

Protesters “must not allow peaceful demonstrations to be turned into attacks on property or people,” he said.

Wednesday’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Najaf set off a sharp escalation of violence.

On Thursday, security forces shot dead 46 people in another southern city, Nassiriya, 18 in Najaf and four in Baghdad bringing the death toll from weeks of unrest to at least 417, most of them unarmed protesters, according to a Reuters tally from medical and police sources.

Clashes between protesters and security forces broke out early on Friday in Nassiriya killing three people and wounding several others, hospital sources said.

Iraq’s “enemies and their apparatuses are trying to sow chaos and infighting to return the country to the age of dictatorship ... everyone must work together to thwart that opportunity,” Sistani said, without elaborating.

(NRT Digital Media/Reuters)

 

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Iraq in turmoil as 45 shot dead by security forces in protests

 

Deaths follow torching of Iran’s consulate in a challenge to Tehran’s power and influence on its neighbour

 

Reuters and Guardian staff

Fri 29 Nov 2019 01.24 GMT

 

 

5472.jpg?width=700&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=1212db31dbff6605b02bbce13a149295
Scores of protesters take to the streets in the Iraq capital, Baghdad. Dozens have been shot in a wave of violence, including the torching of Iran’s consulate
Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP
 
 
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18 minutes ago, umbertino said:

Iraq in turmoil as 45 shot dead by security forces in protests

 

Deaths follow torching of Iran’s consulate in a challenge to Tehran’s power and influence on its neighbour

 

Reuters and Guardian staff

Fri 29 Nov 2019 01.24 GMT

 

 

5472.jpg?width=700&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=1212db31dbff6605b02bbce13a149295
Scores of protesters take to the streets in the Iraq capital, Baghdad. Dozens have been shot in a wave of violence, including the torching of Iran’s consulate
Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP
 
 

 

20 minutes ago, umbertino said:

 

As bad as possible

 

Oh wow, here we go again.

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Iraqi prime minister to resign in wake of deadly protests

Iraq’s prime minister say he will submit resignation to parliament in wake of deadly protests

By
SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press
November 29, 2019, 9:41 AM
7 min read
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The Associated Press
Catch up on the developing stories making headlines.

Iraq’s prime minister announced Friday that he would submit his resignation to parliament, a day after more than 40 people were killed by security forces in protests and following calls by Iraq's top Shiite cleric for lawmakers to withdraw support.

The move by Adel Abdul-Mahdi, which came 13 months after he took office, triggered celebrations by anti-government protesters who have been camped out for nearly two months in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. Young men and women broke out in song and dance as news of the imminent resignation reached the square, the epicenter of the leaderless protest movement.

 

But in the event of an actual resignation, the road to a new government was uncertain and the possibility of political crisis hung in the air, Iraqi officials and experts warned.

In a statement, Abdul-Mahdi said he had "listened with great concern" to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s sermon and made his decision in response to the cleric’s remarks and to "facilitate and hasten its fulfillment as soon as possible."

"I will submit to parliament an official memorandum resigning from the current prime ministry so that the parliament can review its choices,” he said. Abdul-Mahdi was appointed Iraq’s fifth prime minister since 2003 as a consensus candidate following months of political wrangling between rival political blocs.

If accepted when put to vote, Abdul-Mahdi’s resignation would signal a return to square one in those slow-moving negotiations, Iraqi officials and experts said.

Abdul-Mahdi would be the second prime minister in an Arab country to be forced out by mass protests recently. In Lebanon, the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri exactly a month earlier, on Oct. 29, led to further political gridlock and uncertainty.

Abdul-Mahdi’s rise to power was the product of a provisional alliance between parliament’s two main blocs — Sairoon, led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and Fatah, which includes leaders associated with the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units headed by Hadi al-Amiri.

In the May 2018 election, neither coalition won a commanding plurality, which would have enabled it to name the premier, as stipulated by the Iraqi constitution. To avoid political crisis, Sairoon and Fatah forged a precarious union with Abdul-Mahdi as their prime minister.

Now, with his resignation, unresolved disputes between the coalitions threaten to re-emerge, two Iraqi officials said.

“The two of them need to come to an agreement again for us to see a new prime minister,” said a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Abdul-Mahdi had alluded to this challenge implicitly in earlier statements, saying he would resign, but only if an alternative candidate was found for the premiership.

Officials also questioned Abdul-Mahdi’s decision to submit his resignation via the more time-consuming route of parliament, requiring MPs to vote, rather than sending it directly to the president, who has the power to accept it immediately and demote the government to caretaker status until a new one is formed.

One Iraqi official said one of two things could happen: “There’s going to be a lot of horse-trading going on, or it could be paralysis, and nothing changes.”

 

The resignation also creates legal uncertainties as the constitution does not provide clear procedures to guide lawmakers in the event of a premier stepping down, experts said. The key issue was how long Abdul-Mahdi’s government could maintain caretaker status in the event of protracted political negotiations.

 

“To my understanding there is no clause (in the constitution) that says how long he can remain in the post once his resignation is accepted,” said Sajad Jiyad, the managing director of Bayan Center, an Iraq-based think tank.

 

The federal Supreme Court might have to step in, he added, if the caretaker government stays for too long and if parliamentary blocs are unable to come to an understanding.

 

In his weekly Friday sermon delivered via a representative in the holy city of Najaf, Al-Sistani said parliament, which elected the government of Abdul-Mahdi, should “reconsider its options.” His comments prompted political parties to issue calls for the government to step down.

 

“We call upon the House of Representatives from which this current government emerged to reconsider its options in that regard,” al-Sistani said in the statement — a clear sign he was withdrawing his support for the prime minister.

 

It was not immediately clear whether Abdul-Mahdi’s resignation would placate protesters, who are now calling for the removal of the entire political class that has ruled Iraq since the 2003 downfall of Saddam Hussein. Nearly 400 people have been killed in the bloody crackdown on protests since Oct. 1, most of them young demonstrators who were shot dead or killed by exploding tear gas canisters fired by security forces.

 

Amira, a 25-year-old protester, said the resignation should have come weeks ago.

 

"We will not stop with the prime minister. We still have more fighting to do. We will push forward until our demands are met," she said, declining to give her full name, fearing retaliation.

 

Forty protesters were shot dead by security forces in Baghdad and the southern cities of Najaf and Nasiriyah on Thursday, in a sharp escalation of violence that continued Friday.

 

Three more protesters were shot and eight wounded by security forces Friday in Nasiriyah when demonstrators attempted to enter the city center to resume their sit-in, security and hospital officials said. Security forces had fired live rounds the previous day to disperse protesters from two key bridges, killing 31 people.

 

Al-Sistani also said protesters should distinguish between peaceful demonstrators and those seeking to turn the movement violent, following the burning of an Iranian consulate building Wednesday in Najaf. Government officials said the fire was perpetrated by saboteurs from outside the protest movement.

 

After the sermon, the Islamic Dawa party called for parliament to convene immediately and choose an alternative government. Fatah said it would convene with other political blocs to discuss options.

 

A former oil and finance minister and an ex-vice president, the 77-year-old Abdul-Mahdi was seen as a political independent when he took the post in October 2018. He was Iraq’s first prime minister from outside the Dawa party in 12 years.

 

His administration’s policies were characterized by small gains to improve the day-to-day lives of Baghdadis. He moved his offices out of Baghdad’s highly secure Green Zone on the first day of his term, saying he wanted to bring his government closer to the people, while removing wartime cement barriers that had closed Iraqis off from much of the city.

 

In the halls of power in Baghdad, his office worked behind the scenes to streamline the administration and improve decision-making. But the effects of those efforts were not visible to an Iraqi public impatient for reform.

 

Abdul-Mahdi was also often caught in the middle of rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with many perceiving his government and certain staffers as being close to Tehran. Reducing Iraq’s reliance on Iranian electricity imports to meet consumer demand was a key concern of Washington.

 

Protesters widely reject growing Iranian influence over Iraq state affairs. In Baghdad on Friday, demonstrators gathered around the historic Rasheed Street near the strategic Ahrar Bridge and burned the Iranian flag, chanting “Iran out!”

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraqs-top-cleric-warns-chaos-worsening-crisis-67381418

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May a wave of Iraqi pride flow throughout  Iraq.  May Iraqi sovereignty and pride become a primary root to nourish this nation and shape Iraqi democracy forever. Jail those Iraqi politicians that maintain their corruption at the expence of Iraqi. This is the beginning of what we need. This movement needs to get the people's share of the oil revenues to the people. Fundinng to gov programs so said people can get the work they need to live.

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Sadr: Abdul Mahdi's resignation does not mean the end of corruption in Iraq

21 minutes ago
 

Sadr: Abdul Mahdi's resignation does not mean the end of corruption in Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi (left) and cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (right). (Photo: Archive)
 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said on Friday that the announced resignation of Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi earlier that day would not mean the end of corruption in the nation. 

The resignation comes one day after Iraqi security forces killed upwards of forty demonstrators in Baghdad and the southern cities of Nassiriya and Najaf. Since crowds began taking to the streets at the start of October, over 400 have been reported killed, mostly by security forces. 

Protesters decry the chronic lack of jobs and government services and blame the low standard of living on widespread governmental corruption. They have since called for radical change in Iraq’s political system, which they say fails to address their needs, but instead serves the interests of a small governing elite. 

In a statement published online, Sadr described Abdul Mahdi’s departure as “the first fruits of the revolution and not the last,” while suggesting the nomination of a replacement prime minister through a referendum of five candidates to be offered. 

He also suggested that the new prime minister choose his cabinet “far from parties, blocs and, militias and away from sectarian, partisan, nationalist, and factional quotas, as well as activating the role of the judiciary and avoiding the bickering of parliament, whose members are no less corrupt than the government.” 

He continued, “Anyone who sympathizes with us within the realm of parliament should involve himself in the formation of the government only by voting with conviction and taking the opinion of the people directly and under independent and non-corrupt supervision.”  

One month earlier, Sadr called for early elections just two days after the Sairoon parliamentary alliance—which he leads—announced it would be moving to the legislature’s opposition as a result of the flaring public unrest.  

Sairoon is at the head of one of the two largest blocs in parliament and came first in last year’s election with 54 seats out of a total of 329. After months of political deadlock, along with its competitor—a coalition led by Iranian-backed entities—it agreed to Abdul Mahdi as a compromise candidate to form the government. 

“Brother Adil Abdul Mahdi must appear before parliament to announce early elections under the supervision of the United Nations,” Sadr said at the time in a tweet.

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