Protests in Baghdad and other cities, despite Kazemi's decisions, meet demands from protesters

Hundreds of demonstrators flocked to Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, and others gathered in the city of Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar Governorate (south of the country) and in other southern cities, in preparation for demonstrating against the formation of the new government headed by Mustafa Al-Kazemi, and to demand political and economic reform in the country. 

The resumption of the popular movement comes after the decisions of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi yesterday, which were considered by observers as a consolation to the movement, including the release of all those arrested for the protests, the opening of an investigation into the killing of demonstrators, and the return of Lieutenant General Abdel-Wahab Al-Saadi to the counter-terrorism.

The Al-Jazeera correspondent in Iraq explained that the demonstrators in Baghdad burned a number of tires on the Republic Bridge, which separates Al-Tahrir Square from the Green Zone, and the security forces closed the bridge to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the Green Zone, which includes government institutions and the embassies of a number of countries.

Activists and supporters of the popular demonstrations in the past two days have called for demonstrations and protests to resume the demonstrations that stopped in many governorates of Iraq in the past period, due to measures to curb the spread of the Corona virus and the curfew decision taken by the authorities earlier. 

The demonstrations come to express the demonstrators' rejection of the formation of the government, which accuses the ruling parties of being behind its formation, which are the parties that the demonstrators also accuse of corruption and to bring the country to a state of blockage that it reached politically and economically.

Government meeting

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi said after his government’s first meeting yesterday that a committee of experts had been formed to assist the Electoral Commission in organizing fair parliamentary elections.

He added that a committee had been formed to specialize in strategic negotiations with the United States in a manner that protects the sovereignty and unity of Iraq.  

In his government meeting, Al-Kazemi called on the security services to release all the detainees from the demonstrators, except for those he described as those involved in Iraqi blood. 

It was striking that the decision to return Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab Al-Saadi to the anti-terrorism agency and appointed him as its chairman. Al-Saadi was excluded by the government of Adel Abdel-Mahdi last October from the intelligence service, which was rejected by many demonstrators and demanded his return to the device.