During the past few days, the Iraqi political file witnessed a series of unexpected surprises that led to igniting the fire of political accusations at times, and receiving funds from outside the country at other times. on the one hand, and the Coordinating Framework Alliance on the other.
The surprises centered on the Sadrist movement’s return to the political spotlight through the emergence of a new face in the political arena called the “Rejection” front, to which members of the Sadrist movement belong. The second surprise was the leaking of documents revealing that leaders from the “Coordination Framework” had received large sums of money from out of bounds. As for the third and final surprise, it came in the tactic; Which was followed by the leader of the movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, in his withdrawal from political life without leaving it.
The Sadrist movement dealt a strong blow to the “Coordination Framework” coalition when the “Rejection” group, made up of members of the movement, emerged and announced a comprehensive strike to pressure decision-makers to approve the salary scale. It is the strike that the “framework” tried to exploit for electoral purposes, but the situation soon turned against this approach.
The sources revealed that the “Rejection” group, which is secretly led by the Sadrist leadership, is considering running in the upcoming elections, which is what it has recently begun to hint at.
This movement coincided with Muqtada al-Sadr’s determination to limit the numbers of his supporters by announcing the so-called “blood document”, which was written in al-Sadr’s own handwriting.
Al-Sadr had called on his followers to sign a covenant with blood for loyalty, and to follow in the footsteps of his father, the late Shiite cleric Muhammad Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr. Who was assassinated with his two sons in 1999, about two weeks after his decision to freeze the Sadrist movement for at least a year, to fight what he called the corrupt within the joints of the movement.
This is not the first time that al-Sadr has announced his retirement from politics. He announced this in August 2022, after his supporters staged a sit-in inside parliament, and violent acts took place in the Green Zone.
The announcement of his retirement from political work came after a decision he had taken two months earlier, in which he announced the withdrawal of his parliamentary bloc, which won first place in the 2021 elections, with 73 seats.
In this context, sources close to Al-Sadr expected, according to Okaz, that the number of signatories to the blood document would reach at least 8 million people, and considered that the presentation of this document aims to rebuild the structure of the Sadrist movement so that it is ready for any upcoming political or protest activities. However, what is remarkable in the crisis between the Sadrist movement and the framework coalition is the latter’s retraction from adopting the issue of the salary scale after the Sadrist movement moved to support this issue, which prompted him to consider it a governmental affair, as he put it, and he absolved himself of his responsibility to complete the salary scale. Atwan Al-Atwani, the representative of the “State of Law” and Chairman of the Finance Committee, said: The salary scale is related to a decision of the Council of Ministers.
And before that, Al-Atwani had announced that the committee would study the law in conjunction with the arrival of the budget to the House of Representatives, before returning and saying that “it was a coincidence, and the salaries were delivered outside the budget.”
The escalation of the salary scale crisis coincided with new measures by the leader of the Sadrist movement after he prevented politicians outside his movement from attending the anniversary of the assassination of his father, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, which is supposed to take place in a few days. He interpreted the ban as evidence of Sadr’s anger at the political class, and his rejection of what is happening factional and partisan politics; According to what the preacher of Juma al-Sadr said in Kufa.
New Iraqi current
During the past week, a new organization emerged in Iraq calling itself the “Rejection Group,” coinciding with the signing of the Blood Document. It was issued by the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, to limit the loyalty of his supporters around him.
“Rejection” was launched by a group of young activists, and within less than 24 hours hundreds of supporters of the Sadrist movement joined it without knowing the reasons. And raised slogans similar to the slogans of the chest; Which indirectly targets the forces opposing the Sadrist movement, declaring its rejection of the domination of one color over the political decision in the country.
“Rejection” launched its first activities by calling for demonstrations demanding the House of Representatives (Parliament) to pass the salary scale law, but it was subjected to the first shock when the “Coordination Framework Alliance” was announced. Which is based on the parliamentary majority, that the salary scale is a governmental matter and not one of the powers of Parliament.
Forces within the coordination framework were quick to accuse the Sadrist movement of instigating the demonstrations through a “refusal” to stage systematic protests against the mechanism of action of the coalition that dominates power.
The Sadrist movement has not yet issued any confirmation of its adoption of the “Rejection” group, although the vast majority of its members are supporters of the movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr.
