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Iraqis step up protests as deadline for new PM looms
BAGHDAD, Dec 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands took to the streets in Iraq’s
capital and across the south Sunday to protest against Iran’s kingmaking
influence, as the latest deadline for choosing a new prime minister loomed.
Anti-government rallies have rocked Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south
since October 1, with demonstrators calling for a complete overhaul of a
regime they deem corrupt, inefficient and overly beholden to Tehran.
“The revolution continues!” shouted one demonstrator at a protest
encampment in central Diwaniyah.
Protesters blocked off public buildings one by one in the southern Iraqi
city and put up banners reading, “The country is under construction — please
excuse the disruption”.
As the clock ticked closer toward Sunday’s midnight deadline for choosing
a new premier, the demonstrators stepped up their protests, blocking highways
and roads across the south of Iraq with burning tyres.
The deadline for parliament to choose a new prime minister to replace Adel
Abdel Mahdi, who quit last month, has already been pushed back twice by
President Barham Saleh.
Officials say Iran wants to install Qusay al-Suhail, who served as higher
education minister in the government of Abdel Mahdi.
“This is exactly what we oppose — Iranian control over our country,” said
24-year-old student Houeida, speaking to AFP in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the
epicentre of the protests.
The demonstrators categorically reject Suhail’s candidacy, along with
anyone from the wider political establishment that has been in place since
dictator Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003.
“Hundreds of martyrs have fallen and they are still not listening to our
claims”, said 21-year-old student Mouataz, in Tahrir Square. “We want a prime
minister with integrity, but they bring back a corrupt man in their image
whom they will allow to continue robbing us,” he added.
Parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbussi on Sunday travelled to Arbil,
capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, to discuss who
could become the next premier, the presidency there said.
– ‘Iraq must be Iraqi again’ –
In a bid to secure the necessary parliamentary majority for a new premier,
Shiite powerhouse Iran enlisted the services of a Lebanese Hezbollah official
to negotiate with Sunni and Kurdish parties.
The post of prime minister is by convention held by a Shiite in Iraq’s
post-2003 political system.
In a Twitter plea to Saleh, one opposition Sunni lawmaker called Sunday
for the president to “violate the constitution rather than plunge the country
into bloody chaos by choosing a figure people have already rejected”.
Some in parliament — the most fragmented in Iraq’s history — argue that
Saleh should use Article 81 of the Constitution, which authorises the
president to step in as prime minister himself if there is no agreement among
lawmakers on a candidate.
MORE/MSY/0907 hrs
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Saleh sought guidance from the Supreme Court on what constitutes a
parliamentary majority to choose a premier, but on Sunday the tribunal sent
him a letter saying “all options are open”, further adding to the confusion.
If the post remains vacant at midnight, the constitution will place Saleh
himself in the role of acting premier for just 15 days until political
leaders can agree on designating a new premier.
In a sign of the protesters’ unprecedented influence, top Shiite cleric
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who is said to have made and unmade every
premier in the post-Saddam era, has been notably absent from the manoeuvrings
this time around.
The protest movement has been hit by intimidation, including
assassinations perpetrated by militias, according to the UN.
Around 460 people have been killed since October 1, and some 25,000 have
been wounded.
Yet the protesters appeared unbowed on Sunday.
Overnight, demonstrators in Diwaniyah and Basra, another southern city,
had declared a “general strike”.
They burnt tyres to block roads linking southern cities to Baghdad, an AFP
correspondent said.
The road to Umm Qasr port — vital for imports — near Basra was among
those blocked.
In Karbala and Najaf, two Shiite holy cities, striking students closed
schools and gathered in their thousands, AFP correspondents said.
In Nasiriyah, protesters blocked bridges and several roads while all
public buildings remained closed.
Protesters are demanding the fall of Saleh and Halbussi, accusing them of
procrastinating.
“Iraq must become Iraqi again, and if the president does not help us, we
will force him out too,” asserted student Houeida, buoyed by the renewed
momentum in Tahrir Square.
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