After a bloody day in Iraq .. Sistani calls on parliament to act and Sadr demands the government to resign

Iraqi Shiite cleric led by Ali al-Sistani condemned the killing of demonstrators and called for parliamentary action to inject blood, and Sadr leader Muqtada al-Sadr called on the government to resign immediately after Thursday's death toll rose to 55.

During the Friday sermon in the city of Karbala, Ahmed al-Safi, the representative of Sistani accused the "enemies" of planning to spread chaos and return Iraq to dictatorship and pushed him into internal fighting, saying that the events of the past two months showed the inability of those concerned in dealing with the developments of what preserves rights and blood.

The reference called on the Iraqi parliament to act in a way that preserves the interest of Iraq and the blood of its people, and called for speeding up the vote on the reform package in preparation for free and fair elections, and warned that Iraq would pay a high price for "procrastination."

Al-Safi said that "the religious authority, having mercy on the martyrs and the condolences of their families and calls for their patience and solace and the wounded for a speedy recovery, reaffirms the inviolability of attacking peaceful demonstrators and preventing them from exercising their right to demand reform."

At the same time, he also called for peaceful demonstrators to expel vandals from their ranks and not to damage the property of citizens.

The reference Sistani has stressed in an earlier sermon that the country "will not be after these protests as it was before in all cases, let them be aware of that."

Sistani met with the head of the United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Jenin Hennes-Blachart, and agreed on a roadmap, calling for an immediate cessation of violence, reforms and elections, and anti-corruption measures within two weeks, followed by constitutional amendments and structural legislation within three Months.

Dismiss the government
In turn, the leader of the Sadrist movement in a statement called on the Iraqi government to resign immediately our blood, and said he would not participate in any "corrupt" government or future elections.

He also called on Sadr to maintain the peaceful protests, and demanded the demonstrators not to attack the references and holy sites and diplomatic missions.

For its part, accused the Salvation and Development Front, led by former Vice President Osama Nujaifi, the government and those in power to open the door of civil war by "a security and military solution in dealing with demonstrations."

In a related context, said the head of the Iraqi Platform Block Iyad Allawi that the people's uprising is now threatening the political system in Iraq as a whole.

Since the morning, a large funeral procession took place in Nasiriyah and Najaf, after sources confirmed that the number of victims of the security forces bullets yesterday to 55 dead and hundreds wounded, including 34 killed in Nasiriyah, 18 killed in Najaf, and three in Baghdad.

The Reuters count, based on police and medical sources, put the death toll from the protests since October 1 at least 408, mostly unarmed protesters.