BAGHDAD: Thousands of supporters of Iraq’s religious leader Moqtada Sadr stepped up their pressure tactics on Friday with a weekly prayer session in the high-security Green Zone they have occupied for three weeks.
Tensions in the war-scarred country have escalated over the inability of political factions to agree on formation of a government, 10 months after parliamentary elections.
Sadr has millions of devoted followers. Some of them stormed Iraq’s parliament late last month and began a sit-in, first inside the building and then on its grounds where thousands remain.
More recently their opponents from a pro-Iran bloc, the Coordination Framework, began their own sit-in on an avenue leading to the Green Zone which houses government institutions and foreign embassies.
“Yes! Yes to Moqtada!” the cleric’s followers chanted as the prayers began under a blazing sun.
Sadr did not attend.
Neither was he present Wednesday when caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi met party and other leaders to discuss the political deadlock, which ordinary Iraqis see as having nothing to do with their daily struggles.
Nearly two decades after a US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, the country is blighted by endemic corruption, ailing infrastructure, power cuts, and unemployment.
Sadr wants parliament dissolved to pave the way for new elections, and his followers see him as a champion of the anti-corruption fight.
Their opponents in the Framework seek a transitional government before new polls.
The Coordination Framework comprises former paramilitaries of the Tehran-backed Hashd Al-Shaabi network, and the party of former prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki, a longtime Sadr foe.
Al-Maliki was among those who attended the talks on Wednesday, when political leaders agreed to work on a roadmap aimed at ending the impasse which has left the country without a new prime minister or president.
Mohaned Al-Moussaoui, who is close to Sadr, said during his Friday sermon that the “political dialogue is only in the name of your political interests and supporters, and not in the interest of the people.”
The standoff has raised fears of renewed unrest in a country where militias wield significant power and is already taking a toll on the most vulnerable.
Sabreen Khalil lost her husband to COVID-19last year, leaving her to raise seven children alone, but government funding to help her and hundreds of thousands of families in poverty is blocked by political stalemate.
“I am a woman and all of a sudden I had to take the responsibility of seven children alone ... it broke my back,” Khalil said, speaking of the impact of her husband’s death.
Sitting on the floor in her one-bedroom brick house in the village of Saada on the outskirts of Baghdad, she said she cannot afford treatment for her chronic illness and that her children have to skip some meals as food prices soar.
Nine months after applying for a government pension, she has received nothing from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
“Every time we go they tell us ‘We are waiting for a budget’,” she said.
An official at the ministry said Khalil qualifies for support but confirmed there is no funding to provide it.
“Our hands are tied because there is no budget,” the official said.
Her family is one of about 370,000 families who qualify for the pension but are not receiving it because of the political deadlock, the official said.
“There is consensus over dissolving Parliament and holding early elections, the issue is with the mechanism,” a source in the caretaker government said, adding that talks were ongoing.
Hamdi Malik, an associate fellow at the Washington Institute and a specialist on Iraq’s militias, said that despite some efforts to bridge the differences there appeared to be little prospect of swift results.
“The division is so wide that I can’t see any solution and the possibility of clashes is actually increasing,” Malik said.
Parliament did pass an emergency bill in June allocating billions of dollars to buy wheat, rice and gas and to pay salaries, but other government business has stalled.
A prominent Iraqi rights activist said the political factions were all responsible for the deadlock and ordinary Iraqis were paying the price.
“Anger is rising up among the people. Economic conditions have worsened and unemployment is on the rise,” said Hanaa Edwar. Leaders are “holding dialogues to redistribute the spoils amongst politicians,” she said.
Khalil, meanwhile, is still waiting in Saada, which means “happiness” in Arabic, for the government to come to her aid. She said the political process was not working.
“They say it’s wrong if we don’t vote,” she said.
“But elections didn’t change anything.”
