?The second Intrusion of the Green Zone…… Iraq to Where
In less than a month on the first intrusion, and on the impact of the bloody bombings that hit the Iraqi capital Baghdad, before several Days, angry protesters intruded on Friday Iraqi Prime Minister ‘ s office Haider al-Abadi inside the Green Zone in central Baghdad, after clashes with militia and police forces, in a specific development of the wave of popular anger that seems to be reached point of no return by the exacerbation of the crises and clogging of the reform horizon and inability of changing the conditions under the current political system .
This intrusion has led to the killing of four of the intruders and injuring at least ninety people .
And according to this, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned that “what happened to the storming of state institutions by the demonstrators and tampering with public money can not be accepted or tolerated with the perpetrators,” Abadi said that these events aimed at influencing the momentum of victories achieved by the security forces against ISIS .
He added that these events will not undermine the determination of the security forces, and will not be tolerated with its perpetrators . he added in a televised speech that “steps and achievements in the arena of confrontation and the progress achieved in the economic sphere is met with appreciation and the respect of citizens and the world for Iraq and Iraqis, and witness for the moving of the government in the right direction, and we make the utmost effort to overcome the difficult challenges and comprehensive reforms where those are trying to block it .
Abadi continued ” we renew our call for our people to be cautious and vigilant of those who are seeking to create chaos to achieve their aspirations,” asserting that chaos will not be for the benefit of the people and homeland .
For his part, Muqtada al-Sadr confirmed his support for the protesters who stormed the Green Zone in Baghdad, condemning the use of force against them by Iraqi security forces . And he issued a statement saying, “” I respect your choice and your peaceful , spontaneity revolution . Woe to the Government that kill its sons in a cold blood. ” He announced, ” to continue of the peaceful protests,” warning that “anyone has no right to prevent it .. Otherwise, the revolution will be transformed into the another face .”
This intrusion reveals that there is an increasing boldness on the government of Haider al-Abadi, and to break into the Green Zone for the second time in three weeks, would open the appetite of various parties to challenge the government, including the organization of the state- Daaish whose explosions have been returned strongly to Baghdad. It was expected that the Iraqis are moving, especially the supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, in response to renewed criminal bombings that hit the areas controlled by the Sadrists and loyal to him, and the inability of government security measures to address the phenomenon of car bombs that its detonation had become easy in the Baghdad area.
Observers of the Iraqi affair referred that the attack to the Green Zone for the second time by this shocking way means that the despair of reforms has reached to its peak , stressing that the National Alliance (a coalition of the ruling Shiite parties) have completely failed to pick up its scattered parts , and establish a dialogue to end the differences inside it . If the demonstrators who stormed the prime minister’s office did not announce the political party to which they belong, this party does not ignore those speculations to reach it , that is a Shiite party, which means that the Shiite – Shiite conflict which has been postponed for years by Iranian pressure and it has moved to the overt clash stage. What is evidenced by the sharp bickering on the backdrop of bombings in Sadr City, a few days ago, between the Sadrists , who offers his own leading to the movement of the popular protest that demands for reform , and the Badr Organization, which oversees on the security affairs through the interior minister belonging to it, Mohammed Salem Al Ghabban, for the close association of the given security by political considerations.
Popular Protests have returned to appear in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and several cities in the south of the country, in defiance of the difficult security situation, and aggravating actions taken by the Iraqi authorities in an attempt to prevent the scenario of storming of the Green Zone, which contains the head quarters of the main government offices and foreign embassies , as well as the deployment of the Shiite militias of their gunmen in the capital on the pretext to maintain the security.
And the determination of Iraqis to protest shows , in this atmosphere which is full of political conflict and security threats represented especially in successive bombings that hit the capital Baghdad recently that caused hundreds of victims among the dead and wounded , that Iraq is going to face the strong “heat” summer in terms of the popular protest movement.
The coming of the wave of the escalating demonstrations in Iraq, with the approach of going about a year at the start of the protest movement in the country, which was the deterioration of services, including the scarcity of electricity supply, was a direct ignition for it to expand the protests then to include demands for reform and the fight against the corrupt. Since then , events related to the protests were branched out and turned into a political crisis and launched a fierce struggle between “the” political process partners, especially the leaders of the Shiite parties seizing of the power.
The crisis resulted that Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadrist movement to takeover the popular movement, which began spontaneously and automatically, and turn it into a tool to put pressure on political opponents who have been successful for more than 13 years in the neutralization of him in the country’s leadership sites that he sees it as the right for him and his family according to a status he enjoyed in the field of Shiite religiosity in Iraq .
It is ironic that the Sadr movement whatever aroused from the chaos within the Shiite political House, represented though a service to the existing system in Iraq, where al-Sadr was able to control the movement of the street and prevent it from turning into a popular revolt against the regime. In this sense , a protests cycle constitute , that its features to appear with the beginning of the crisis , a challenge to the rule of the Shiite parties in Iraq, with nothing to suggest that al-Sadr is able to encircle it again after touching of the street that Sadrist leader is unable to bring about any change in the conditions that Iraqis came out to demonstrate because of it since about a year.
Observers do not rule out that the incursions can be repeated and could make sponsoring states of the political process , namely Iran and the United States, exercising more pressure on the parties and militias to stop their opposition to the government of technocrats that came originally to take out of the political process and beneficiaries of the crisis that could lead to its downfall. They wondered: Could the government of Abadi stand more , and whether Tehran and Washington would succeed in injecting a new dose of oxygen to sustain the breath of the political process, even for months to come?
Based on these facts , Iraq is apparently coming to the summer of extremely difficult which combine political crisis with the economic crisis, and complicated by a new cycle of violence could reach an unprecedented level of bloodshed , due to the accumulation of weapons and its abundance and the large number of armed groups that have benefited from the war on Daash to reorganize its groups and get qualitative weapons . In the light of these facts, we wonder Iraq to where ?
Rawabet Research and Strategic Studies Center
