INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Shafaq News/ Washington urged contesting parties in Iraq to shun violence and seek constitutional solutions for the ongoing political
differences.In a statement issued earlier today, Tuesday, the US embassy in Baghdad said, "We are closely monitoring reports of unrest in
Baghdad today at the Supreme Judicial Council.""We urge all parties to remain calm, abstain from violence, and resolve any political
differences through a peaceful process guided by the Iraqi constitution," the statement adder. "We also call for those demonstrating to
respect the proceedings and property of Iraq's governmental institutions which belong to and serve the Iraqi people," it concluded.Iraq's
judiciary suspended work on Tuesday after supporters of powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr camped out near its headquarters to demand
that it dissolve parliament, escalating one of the worst political crises since the U.S.-led invasion.The populist leader has helped inflame
tensions in Iraq in recent weeks by commanding thousands of followers to storm and occupy parliament, preventing the formation of a
government nearly 10 months after elections.Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who cut short a trip to Egypt to deal with the crisis, has
urged all sides to calm down and renewed calls for a national dialogue.In a statement, al-Kadhimi said disrupting the judiciary "exposes the
country to serious risks".Al-Sadr's Shiite Muslim followers began gathering for protests outside the headquarters of the Supreme Judicial
Council and Federal Supreme Court in Baghdad
They have sent threats by phone, the judiciary said in a statement."(We) will suspend court sessions as a protest against this
unconstitutional behaviour and will hold the government and political parties which are backing this move fully responsible for all the
results," the statement added.The standoff in Iraq is the longest stretch without a fully functioning government in the nearly two decades
since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.Al-Sadr was the biggest winner of the 2021 election but was unable to
form a government along with Kurdish and Sunni Muslim Arab parties, excluding his Iran-backed Shiite rivals.The young cleric, who has
unmatched influence in Iraq, can quickly mobilise hundreds of thousands of followers to stage demonstrations and paralyse the country's
byzantine politics.Al-Sadr, who fought U.S
troops and went on to become a kingmaker in Iraqi politics, has called for early elections and unspecified changes to the constitution after
withdrawing his lawmakers from parliament in June.He survived upheaval in the 19 years since his Mahdi Army militia took on the Americans
with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the streets and alleys of Baghdad and southern cities.His followers also fought the
Iraqi army, Islamic State militants and rival Shi'ite militias.Most of Iraq's Shiite political establishment remains suspicious or even
Still, his political organisation, the Sadrist movement, has come to dominate the apparatus of the Iraqi state since the 2018 election,
taking senior jobs within the interior, defence and communications ministries.
