IRAQ SPIRALS AS PROTESTS ESCALATE THIS WEEK

Street protests across central and southern Iraq escalated further this week, as the Iraqi prime minister attended the Davos conference in Switzerland. PM Abdul-Mahdi previously announced his resignation last November after two months of ongoing protests against his government’s complicity with the Iranian regime and neglect of Iraqi citizens. Almost two more months have passed since protesters hit the streets on 1 October, with no announcement regarding Abdual-Mahdi’s successor. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters have been killed by live ammunition and thousands injured in brutal crackdowns by Iranian-sponsored militias throughout the country.

Demonstrators had demanded the appointment of a new prime minister by Sunday. After the deadline was ignored, major roads were blocked with burning tires and government offices were forcibly closed throughout Baghdad, as the protesters formed human cordons and welded the doors of government offices shut. Their efforts to shut down the central government represent a significant escalation in the protest movement which is not likely to end soon, as representatives of the movement vowed that they will not leave the streets until their demands are met. Plainclothes militia members and security forces reacted with live rifle fire and close range tear gas canister shots, killing at least two protesters and injuring over 50 so far this week.

Although the street protests are centered in Baghdad, they have spread throughout much of central and southern Iraq as well. In Basra, the office of a major pro-Iranian political party was burned. Students took to the streets in Karbala with protest banners and street fires, and demonstrators took selfies in front of burning tires on the streets of Nasariyah. A pro-Iranian Hezbollah office was attacked in Najad, and a popular female activist was shot dead as she walked home from a protest in Basra.

Meanwhile, pro-Iranian militias in Iraq are continuing to place pressure on Iraqi politicians to expel US forces from the country. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has long-standing ties with Iran and has been a vehement opponent of the US presence in Iraq since 2003, led a protest rally against the US presence in Baghdad on Friday with chants of “Down, Down with America!” Members of pro-Iranian Shi’a militias threatened to kill Iraqi President Barham Saleh, who is Kurdish, for the “betrayal” of meeting with US President Trump at the Davos conference. The Iraqi constitution guarantees the presidency, a largely ceremonial post, to a Kurd. The threats against Saleh are especially salient when considering the role of Iran-sponsored militias in attacking the Kurdish Peshmerga in 2017 to recapture the Kirkuk and Sinjar regions after the expulsion of ISIS. It was recently revealed that now-deceased Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soliemani directed that attack after warning the Kurdish autonomous region against holding a referendum for independence.