Muqtada al-Sadr egg Qabban in the Iraqi scene

In the elections, negotiations, the formation of governments and demonstrations in Iraq, one name everyone is looking for to know the course of the political ship in the country, it is Muqtada al-Sadr, the egg of the grave in the Iraqi scene.

The generalist, who has gripped his beard, presents himself as a patron of reform - in a country that ranks 12th on the list of the world's most corrupt countries - and has been fighting corruption in a political class that has been in power for 16 years.

Nonetheless, Iraqi expert Fener Haddad says the Sadrists are an integral part of the political class and have never missed high-level ministerial and public posts.

march
Sadr, who is said to be a little smiling, was born on August 12, 1973 in Kufa, south of Baghdad.

Muqtada al-Sadr, a Republican voice and a gloomy face, has inherited a lot of popularity.

Moqtada's father, who was killed along with two of his sons in 1999, is one of the cousins ​​of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, a prominent thinker executed by Saddam with his sister Nour al-Huda in 1980 on charges of collaborating with Iran.

He gave this prestigious impulse an impulse to Moqtada.

A march that began with fierce battles with US forces that invaded Iraq in 2003, and ended with a military-political conflict with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who ruled the country between 2006 and 2014.

Crooked line
Sadr went into hiding in late 2006. His whereabouts were unknown until he returned to the neighborhood of al-Hananah in Najaf, where he was based, in early 2011.He later found that he spent more than four years in the Iranian city of Qom to pursue classes in the Hawza.

Karim Bitar, a scholar in international relations, says Sadr is a zigzag, moved from being a national anti-US leader during the Iraq war to an alliance with Saudi Arabia, and suddenly returned to take a radical turn and get closer to the Iranians.

Sadr's personality and approach are problematic for both Iran and the United States.

If Washington does not forget the Mahdi Army, Tehran in turn does not forget the hostile positions of the Sadr family, known for their widely respected religious leadership.

Sadr recently made a surprise visit to Tehran, where he met Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, which shocked the Iraqi street.

"This visit took place because Sadr was asking for protection, because he feared that he might be assassinated," said one expert on Iraq.

The earliest evidence of this possibility was in the midst of the popular wave in Iraq today, which was characterized by unprecedented violence in the south, where the burning of the headquarters of parties and armed factions belonging to the Popular Mobilization, observers said it "comes in the context of the operations of the account liquidation."

But Sadr is "an expert in sociology although he is multi-orientated," says researcher Renad Mansour of Chatham House.

His return from Iran to Najaf was at a delicate moment. He found himself on the street among the protesters, walking around in his car, and again in the captain's seat.

necessity
Sadr heads almost daily to his supporters, taking advantage of the Twitter platform through which he moves a street, and calms another.

Mansour points out that Sadr, one of the few leaders who have lived under Saddam Hussein, "is described as paradoxical over the years, but in the end it runs like the street craves."

Indeed, although it was the godfather of the current government headed by Adel Abdul Mahdi, Sadr did not accept - according to Mansour - to "see a government fail."

Consequently, the wave of protests that killed more than 240 people was enough excuse for Sadr, who currently leads the "Sairoun" coalition, which won the last legislative elections and won 54 seats in parliament, to put its weight and fall on the street, and even in alliance with the crowd factions That wasn't in sync with it.

"Sadr's support was crucial in the formation of the current government and several previous governments, but this contradiction seems to have had a significant impact on Sadr's image outside his Sadrist base," Haddad said.

Despite the fear that he would ride the wave, he said, "there is a division within the Shiite elite, especially with Sadr's anxiety and other growing influence of actors closer to Iran on Iraqi political and military institutions."

This is because Sadr is very popular among the Shiite poor, especially in the densely populated Sadr City of Baghdad.

Despite the zigzag chart of Sadr's political career, Bitar says he is "a controversial figure with a volatile course, yes, but it will remain a necessity in the coming years in Iraq."