Tahrir Square in Baghdad has found the crowds of the great days. Thousands of people demonstrated on Friday, January 10, at the emblematic place of the protest in the Iraqi capital, as well as in the cities of southern Shiite, with cries of "No to America, no to Iran! ". At 100e the day of an unprecedented challenge to the government, overshadowed by the escalation between the two rival sponsors, the protesters denounced the foreign interference that threatens the stability of Iraq and conspired the submission of the political class to this interference.
"It is a message of unity for a sovereign Iraq. The demonstrators feel the responsibility to defend the sovereignty of the country that the authorities have not been able to defend "said Ali, a Baghdad protester reached by phone.
Giving breath to this mobilization of unprecedented scale for several weeks, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in the country, had sent back to back Washington and Tehran, in his weekly sermon, at midday . "Iraqis must lead Iraq, it is not the role of foreigners to make decisions there because they must come from the people", he urged, through the voice of his representative in Kerbala.
The protest movement launched on 1st October 2019, to denounce the incompetence and corruption of the ruling class, threatened to die out. Rising tensions between Iran and the United States, and the assassination of Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani and his lieutenant in Iraq, Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, in Baghdad on January 3, gave a feeling of omnipotence to pro-Iranian Shiite armed parties and factions. Agitating anti-American sentiment, the latter demonstrated their might during the state funeral of the two men, which brought together tens of thousands of Iraqis on January 4.
"We feel strong again"
On the sidelines of funeral processions, sit-ins of anti-power demonstrators had been attacked in several cities in the south of the country. Fear of further attacks has dried up mobilization, the target of a deadly crackdown that left more than 460 dead and 25,000 injured in three months. The growing tension between Washington and Tehran offers Shiite parties and factions an opportunity to stifle the protest, which destabilizes their grip and that of their Iranian sponsor over power.
“People feared a new war in Iraq. The assassination of Soleimani and Mohandes was a terrible decision by the Trump administration. We were close to the civil war, Ali continues in Baghdad. We feel strong again and ready to defend our demands as on the first day. "
