In Iraq, the two main partners of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi have agreed in the night from Tuesday 29 to Wednesday 30 October to withdraw their support while the challenge continues to swell in the street.

The turbulent Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr and the paramilitary leader of Hashd al-Shaabi in the Hadi al-Ameri parliament announced separately that they would "work together" to "withdraw (their) trust" from the head of the government, an independent no partisan nor popular base conspired by the street since the beginning of the month.

The two men, who up to now had been insulting each other by messages, finally agreed in the middle of the night, a few hours before a new session in Parliament to which Adel Abdel Mahdi is to attend.

"# Clears"

The Assembly must vote on a motion of no confidence, assured Moqtada Sadr in a tweet addressed to the Prime Minister ended by the hashtag "# Clear!".
Shortly before, it was Adel Abdel Mahdi himself who challenged the leaders of the two main blocs in Parliament, explaining that there was "a faster way" than the early elections that Moqtada Sadr has called since the beginning of the month.

"Agree with Mr. Ameri to form a new government," he wrote in an open letter to the former militia leader who became the herald of the anti-corruption demonstrations. "Immediately," Moqtada Sadr immediately replied on Twitter.

While the two men were getting along, Tahrir Square in Baghdad was crowded despite a night curfew decreed by the army but broken every night since Monday night.

Beyond a change of Prime Minister, the movement that started on October 1 claims jobs and services as well as a new Constitution and a total renewal of a political class unchanged since the fall of President Saddam Hussein in 2003.

In a country where, officially, corruption has already plunged 410 billion euros of public funds, the street also claims that the "big fish" are forced to make that sum - twice the GDP of Iraq, the second largest producer of Opec.

Moqtada Sadr among the protesters

Moqtada Sadr himself came down during the day to join anti-government protesters in the square of Najaf, the holy Shiite city where he resides. Not long before, he had landed at Najaf airport from Iran, according to airport sources.

The unprecedented protest movement in the country, because spontaneous, was marked by violence that has claimed the lives of nearly 250 people since the beginning of October, mostly demonstrators, according to an official report. "This vicious circle of violence must stop," the UN pleaded.

With AFP