The leader of Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, Qais al-Khazali, said that there are doubts about the account of the attempt to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi, while Washington pointed the finger at what it called Iranian-backed militias of being behind the attempt.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera about the attempt to assassinate Al-Kazemi, Al-Khazali leaned towards the hypothesis of the third party in the assassination attempt with Israeli implementation and American coordination, and demanded that there be a technical and accurate investigation that searches for evidence in the assassination attempt, considering that targeting the prime minister’s house means targeting the political system and the Iraqi state.
Khazali rejected accusations that Iraqi factions were involved in the assassination attempt, and said, "Therefore, we requested a credible investigation."
Regarding the results of the legislative elections that were held on October 10, Khazali said that "the illogical results of the elections lead us to believe that they were programmed to give one side a wide margin."
He explained that the demand for the re-run of the legislative elections still exists because of the accompanying manipulation, and affirmed his refusal to recognize its results, and warned that this might lead many forces to boycott the entire political process.
On the other hand, US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby considered that what he described as Iranian-backed militias were behind the assassination attempt.
Kirby explained - in press statements - that Iranian-backed militias had earlier carried out similar attacks using unmanned aerial systems, he said.
De-escalation
In the meantime, the coordination framework - which includes forces opposed to the election results - called for reducing tension, stopping media escalation from all sides, and removing manifestations of provocation from the street.
This came in a statement issued by the framework after a meeting last night, in which the President of the country, Barham Salih, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, and the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Faleh Zeidan, participated.
The coordinating framework includes political blocs, most notably: the State of Law coalition, the State Forces Alliance, the Al-Fateh Alliance, the Ataa Movement, and the Virtue Party.
The statement stressed the need to reduce tension, stop the media escalation from all sides, remove all manifestations of provocation in the street, and go towards calming people's fears.
“The coordination framework holds a meeting in the presence of the presidents, ministers and the judiciary, and it comes out with 5 points.” https://t.co/aGlnWOMu15
- Informed (@INA__NEWS) November 8, 2021
He stressed the rejection and condemnation of targeting the prime minister's house, calling for investigations to be completed to find out all the reasons for the targeting attempt and to bring those responsible to justice.
The statement called for a search for legal solutions to the crisis of subjective election results, which would restore confidence to all parties in the electoral process, which was greatly shaken.
And last Sunday, Al-Kazemi survived a failed assassination attempt through an attack with 3 drones rigged with explosives, two of which were shot down, while the third fell in his residence in the capital, Baghdad, injuring a number of his guards.
For a while, Iraq has been witnessing political tension due to the rejection of the initial results of the parliamentary elections by several forces. These forces have demanded that all polling stations be recounted manually, and their supporters have participated in a sit-in and protests in Baghdad for more than two weeks.
Sorting ends
On Monday, the High Elections Commission in Iraq announced the completion of the manual counting process for 4,324 polling stations in the early parliamentary elections, noting that it was identical to the results of the electronic count.
And it stated in a statement that it will announce later (without setting a date) all the details regarding the counting process, in light of the decisions of the electoral judiciary and the announcement of the final results.
The Sadrist bloc - led by Muqtada al-Sadr - topped the preliminary results with 73 seats out of 329, while the Progress bloc led by dissolved Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi won 38 seats, and in the third place, the State of Law bloc led by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki came with 34 seats.
The Al-Fateh Alliance - a political umbrella for the armed factions - is the main loser in the elections, with only 16 seats, after it came second with 48 seats in the 2018 elections.