Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani was officially nominated to lead the country on Monday by the Coordination Framework, the largest Shiite alliance in the Iraqi parliament.
His nomination followed the mass resignation of Sadr’s parliamentary bloc, a group of more than 70 lawmakers who withdrew from the ruling council last month in an apparent show of force after months of political deadlock.
He added, “If the thoracic mass remains, [in parliament] “An obstacle in the way of forming a government, all the bloc’s deputies are honorably ready to resign from parliament,” Sadr said in a televised speech in June.
The cleric, who positions himself against Iran and the United States, is very popular. His bloc’s success in the October vote threatened to marginalize the Iran-aligned Shiite blocs that had long dominated the oil-rich country’s politics.
On Wednesday, al-Sadr told protesters in the parliament building that their “message” had arrived and that they should go home.
“A revolution of reform and rejection of injustice and corruption. Your message has arrived. You terrified the corrupt. Pray and return home safely,” he wrote on Twitter.
The government of the outgoing Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, issued a statement calling on the Sadrist demonstrators to “immediately withdraw from the Green Zone”, preserve public and private property, and abide by the instructions of the security forces.
Al-Kazemi added that “the security forces will be committed to protecting state institutions and international missions and preventing any disturbance of security and order.”
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