Article Author:
Associated Press
Qasim Abdul-zahra
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's caretaker prime minister called a meeting of senior political leaders and party leaders on Wednesday to discuss the plans for the next few months. I searched for a way out of the period. A crisis amid a power struggle between rival Shia blocs. However, the party of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr did not attend the rally.
The absence of Sadr's camp has led to interim prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's ten months in office. It has effectively undermined efforts to resolve the crisis that spans the world.
Al-Sadr and his political rival, an Iran-backed Shia group, are at odds after last year's parliamentary elections. Al-Sadr won the largest share of seats in the October vote, but he failed to form a government with a majority.
His campaign later resigned from parliament, and his supporters stormed Baghdad's parliament building last month. Sadr calls for the dissolution of parliament and the holding of early elections.
Iran-backed Shia groups, leaders of Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish political blocs, and the chairman of the country's High Judicial Council attended Wednesday's meeting, with UN special representative Janine Henis Prashat also attended.
Discussions focused on possible solutions to the political crisis and prioritized maintaining peace among Iraqis, according to a statement from al-Kadhimi's office after the meeting. Al-Sadr last Wednesday gave the judiciary one week to dissolve parliament, but said the parliament did not have the power to dissolve it. to prepare for mass protests across Iraq, but postponed indefinitely after Iran-backed groups called for similar rallies on the same day, saying they wanted to keep the peace. For him, "Iraqi's blood is immeasurable."
Al-Sadr's Shiite rivals in the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iran-backed political parties, have previously said the parliament must be convened to be dissolved.
