Does Moqtada al-Sadr’s exit from Parliament serve Iran and the US?

Written by – Elijah J. Magnier:

Muqtada al-Sadr left the window of the political arena open when he resigned from his parliamentary bloc and allowed the political opponents of the Shiite “coordination framework” to come through the door to elect the President and the Ministers of the Republic- and induce the current crisis. The change in the political map came after new MPs took the constitutional oath and replaced the Sadrist MPs. Iraq now has parliamentary stability and a partial breakthrough after the end of the political deadlock. However, the exclusion of the Sadrist group and the distribution of shares between the large blocs are expected to limit Iraq’s advances. So, what did Sayyed Sadr really win? And is it possible to form a government without Sayyed Moqtada?

Political ambiguity and uncertainty seemed taken off the table when Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the largest bloc of 73 MPs, decided to leave the political arena. Al-Sadr lost control of the political negotiations when he raised the level of his expectations with his political adversaries since the results indicated that his bloc had won a parliament with an individual majority. Sayyed al-Sadr failed to realise that the political change he wanted to implement was still premature in the current Iraqi political structure and composition.  The Sadrist leader will undoubtedly achieve little change by leaving the Parliament unless he believes that by sending his supporters onto the street, he could organise and accomplish a coup d’état. This objective is not that simple to achieve in Iraq these days. Moqtada’s political opponents are not weak enough to give up the power and allow him to take control of the country.

Sayyed Muqtada had one goal: to lead the Shiites and the country. He clashed with most of the other Shia components and agreed to align himself with the Kurds of Erbil, regardless of the political opinion of the Kurds of Sulaymaniyah. He abdicated responsibility for the electorate who had brought his obedient and loyal MPs into Parliament. Sayyed Al-Sadr chose to cede his seats to his Shia opponents without remaining in the parliamentary opposition because the political blocs rejected Al-Sadr’s request to exclude ex-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the holder of the most significant number of MPs from the Shiite camp opposed to Sayyed al-Sadr. 

Therefore, Muqtada had no choice but to return to the street when he realized that the time would come to confront the future government if he was incapable and did not respond to the needs of society, according to the visions of al-Sadr. 

However, no government can be formed without Moqtada’s approval because his Shia political opponents cannot handle the country’s leadership and are divided over who will lead the country. Al-Maliki wants to be Prime Minister for the last time, a position which no one in his group desires due to previous experience and the rejection of the Marjaiya in Najaf (Sayyed Ali Sistani) to envision al-Maliki’s return to power.

The “coordination framework” succeeded in bringing together 160 deputies, becoming the current largest bloc, and starting consultations with the Sunni and Kurdish parties to agree on the Republic’s next President. Negotiations between Erbil and Sulaymaniyah began after they were suspended the day Massoud Barzani joined Sayyed Sadr’s alliance to appoint the next Kurdish President of the Republic, excluding the Kurds of Sulaymaniyah. Technically there should first be an agreement between the blocs and the Kurdish parties without Shiite or Sunni intervention because Kurds do not intervene in the appointment of the Sunni President or the Shiite prime minister. An Iraqi decision-maker said that “the return of Mustafa Al-Kadhemi, the current Prime 

Proofread by: Maurice Brasher