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.”



Bodies of Eight Red Crescent Medics Recovered in Gaza, One Still Missing

Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services carry bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025. (AFP)
Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services carry bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025. (AFP)
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Bodies of Eight Red Crescent Medics Recovered in Gaza, One Still Missing

Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services carry bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025. (AFP)
Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services carry bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025. (AFP)

The bodies of eight Palestine Red Crescent medics who came under fire in Gaza just over a week ago have been recovered, though a ninth worker is still unaccounted for, the Red Cross said.

In a statement late on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "appalled" at the deaths.

"Their bodies were identified today and have been recovered for dignified burial. These staff and volunteers were risking their own lives to provide support to others," it said.

The Palestine Red Crescent said it also recovered the bodies of six civil defense members and one UN employee from the same area. It said Israeli forces had targeted the workers. Red Cross statements did not apportion blame for the attacks.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said one worker from the nine-strong Red Crescent group was still unaccounted for. The group went missing on March 23.

The Israeli military said on Monday that an inquiry had found that on March 23, troops opened fire on a group of vehicles that included ambulances and fire trucks when the vehicles approached a position without prior coordination and without headlights or emergency signals.

It said several fighters belonging to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups were killed.

"The Israeli army condemns the repeated use of civilian infrastructure by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, including the use of medical facilities and ambulances for terrorist purposes," it said in a statement.

It did not comment directly on the deaths of the Red Cross workers.

The incident was the single most deadly attack on Red Cross Red Crescent workers anywhere since 2017, the IFRC said.

"I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians," said IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain.

"They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked," he added.

According to the United Nations, at least 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The global body is reducing its international staff in Gaza by a third due to staff safety concerns.