Iraq: Shiite Factions Scramble to Win Parliamentary Majority After Withdrawal of Sadrist Movement

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on a billboard in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, June 21, 2021. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on a billboard in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, June 21, 2021. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad
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Iraq: Shiite Factions Scramble to Win Parliamentary Majority After Withdrawal of Sadrist Movement

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on a billboard in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, June 21, 2021. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on a billboard in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, June 21, 2021. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad

An announcement made by Moqtada al-Sadr that he won’t run in Iraq’s parliamentary elections has increased the chances of those seeking to postpone the early polls scheduled for Oct. 10 to their constitutional date in April 2022.

Sadr’s Sairoon bloc is the biggest in the Iraqi parliament with 54 out of 329 seats.

Several other prominent factions and parties have recently announced their rejection to run in the elections, including the Iraqi Communist Party, the Iraqi Forum Movement led by Ayad Allawi, the National Dialogue Front led by Saleh al-Mutlaq, the Iraqi Republican Gathering of Saad Asim al-Janabi, and others.

A well-informed Iraqi politician told Asharq Al-Awsat that the priority was now to hold the elections in October.

Setting this date was part of the commitment made by Prime Minister Mustafa to hold early elections, deal with the foreign presence in Iraq, reveal the killers of demonstrators during protests that erupted in 2019, as well as address the economic crisis and confronting the Covid-19 pandemic, said the politician.

The Iraqi premier has now set an early date for the elections, achieved progress in the assassinations case, and reached an agreement over the withdrawal of the US combat forces in Iraq by the end of the year.

While none of the Shiite factions and parties have announced their support or rejection of Sadr’s position, the surprise came from the leader of the State of Law Coalition, Nuri al-Maliki, Sadr’s most prominent opponent.

In a statement on Thursday, Maliki announced that the parliamentary elections would not be postponed and would take place on time. He also declared his rejection of an “emergency government because it means a rebellion against democracy and the principles of parliamentary transfer of power.”



Building in Beirut Southern Suburbs Struck After Israeli Warning

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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Building in Beirut Southern Suburbs Struck After Israeli Warning

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A building in Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahieh was struck on Sunday almost an hour after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order to residents of the area.

The Israeli army's spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, earlier said on X that residents should evacuate several buildings in the Hadath neighborhood and move "at least 300 meters away.”

Residents reported hearing gunfire across the area, which they said they believed was intended to warn people to leave, as well as seeing a massive traffic jam on roads leading from the area.

"To everyone located in the building marked in red on the attached map, and the surrounding buildings: you are near facilities belonging to Hezbollah," Adraee wrote in a post that included a map of the potential targets.

The Israeli army said the building was being used to store precision missiles belonging to Hezbollah.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Hezbollah's precision missiles "posed a significant threat to the State of Israel."

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the United States and France, as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement struck in November, to compel Israel to stop its attacks.
"Israel's continued actions in undermining stability will exacerbate tensions and place the region at real risk, threatening its security and stability," he said in a statement.

Earlier this month an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including a Hezbollah official, in Beirut's southern suburbs -the second Israeli strike on a Hezbollah-controlled area of the Lebanese capital in five days.