The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, returned to the forefront of events after his deputies resigned from Parliament in response to his request, which shuffled the political cards in Iraq, due to his great influence, to the extent that some analysts describe him as the most powerful figure in the country.

But even with his enormous influence, al-Sadr has not been able to form a majority government and end an ongoing political crisis since the early legislative elections that took place last October.

Al-Sadr said that he took the step of withdrawing from parliament, "a sacrifice on my part for the country and the people to rid them of an unknown fate."

Despite the withdrawal, al-Sadr still wields enormous influence with hundreds of thousands of supporters who can organize protests.

His move would greatly increase the stakes in the power struggle within Iraq's Shiite parties.

The legacy of the al-Sadr family and its distinguished lineage gave Muqtada a distinguished position in Iraqi Shiite circles (Reuters)

symbol of american resistance

Al-Sadr was virtually unknown outside Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003, but he quickly became a symbol of resistance to occupation, drawing much of his influence from his family.

Muqtada - who close to him says is quick to anger and a little smiling - was born on August 12, 1973 in Kufa, south of Baghdad, and inherited great popularity, as he is the son of the prominent Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who was assassinated with two of his sons in 1999 after criticizing him. The outspoken leader of the late Saddam Hussein, and the cousin of his father, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, a prominent Shiite thinker who was executed by Saddam with his sister Nur al-Huda in the spring of 1980.

This prestigious lineage gave Muqtada a boost, as he was one of the most prominent figures who played a key role in rebuilding the political system after the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003, and the leader of one of the most influential and popular Shiite movements in the country.

"His family legacy, without which I don't think he would have been where he is today," says Randa Slim, a researcher at the Middle East Institute.

Despite the risks, al-Sadr never fled Iraq, unlike other prominent figures in post-Saddam governments who had returned from Iran and the West after the invasion.

Al-Sadr's march began with fierce battles with the American forces that invaded Iraq, and ended with a dispute with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who ruled the country between 2006 and 2014.

Al-Sadr denied any role in the killing of Al-Khoei (Reuters)

Zigzag

Al-Sadr went into hiding at the end of 2006, when he stopped seeking knowledge in the seminary in the Iranian city of Qom, until he returned to his residence in the Al-Hanana neighborhood in Najaf at the beginning of 2011.

Karim Bitar, a researcher in international relations, says, "Al-Sadr is a person with a zigzag line, who moved from being an anti-American national leader during the Iraq war, to find him allied with Saudi Arabia, and suddenly returned again to taking a radical turn and getting closer to the Iranians."

It is known that al-Sadr's personality and approach are problematic for Iran and the United States alike.

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

Al-Sadr was the first to form a Shiite faction to resist the American forces.

And he led two uprisings against the United States, which prompted the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) to consider his army (the Mahdi Army) the greatest threat to Iraq's security.

In 2004, the US occupation authority issued an arrest warrant against Al-Sadr, saying that he was wanted dead or alive in connection with the killing of the Shiite leader Abdul Majeed Al-Khoei in 2003, who returned to Iraq during the US invasion and resided in the city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.

Al-Sadr denied any role in the killing of Al-Khoei and was never charged.

Sadr has withstood 19 years of turmoil since the Mehdi Army attacked US forces with guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the alleys and streets of Baghdad and southern cities.

His followers also fought the Iraqi army, Islamic State fighters, and rival Shiite factions.

During the sectarian violence in Iraq between 2006 and 2008, the Mahdi Army was accused of forming assassination squads to kidnap and kill Sunni figures.

Al-Sadr denied using violence against his fellow Iraqis.

In 2008 Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a major offensive to crush the Mahdi Army in the southern city of Basra.

Later that year, al-Sadr ordered a cessation of armed operations and announced that the Mahdi Army would transform into a cultural and social organization called the Peace Brigades.

Al-Sadr is able to rally hundreds of thousands of supporters in the streets whenever he wants (Reuters)

Al-Sadr is reintroducing itself

Al-Sadr later decided to compete in the highly complex politics of Iraq, and over time gained more popularity after pledging to eradicate endemic corruption in the state.

With his distinctive turban, the self-proclaimed champion of the poor and dispossessed Sadr could rally hundreds of thousands of supporters in the streets whenever he wanted.

In 2016, Sadr's supporters stormed parliament inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, after he denounced the failure to reform a political quota system that is blamed for endemic corruption because it was exploited by political leaders to appoint their supporters to key jobs.

Al-Sadr warned that if corrupt officials and the quota system persisted, the entire government would be brought down and no one would be excluded.

He ordered his supporters to end their sit-in at the gates of the Green Zone after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi presented a new cabinet lineup aimed at fighting corruption.

Al-Sadr reintroduced himself before the 2018 parliamentary elections, forming an alliance with communists and secularists.

Marginalized for years by his Shiite rivals, he emerged victorious in a powerful comeback in which he took control of ministries and government jobs, capitalizing on public discontent with his former ally Iran and the political elite.

Analysts see that al-Sadr is contradictory, but he is doing as the street desires (Reuters)

The challenge of Washington and Tehran

Al-Sadr was the only Shiite leader who defied both Tehran and Washington, an equation that seemed to make him popular with millions who felt they did not benefit from their government's close ties to Iran or the United States.

Al-Sadr addresses his supporters almost daily, taking advantage of the Twitter platform, through which he moves one street and calms another.

Researcher Renad Mansour from Chatham House says that al-Sadr, who is one of the few leaders who lived through the Saddam period, "is described as contradictory over the years, but in the end it happens as the street desires."

After the US assassination of the Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, along with Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, in a raid near Baghdad Airport in early 2020, Al-Sadr had a hard stance against Washington, and was the first to demand an end to the American presence in the country through a huge demonstration he organized in the capital. Tehran at the same time that it will not leave Iraq in its grip.

Iraq has been a proxy battleground for influence between the United States and Iran since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam, paving the way to power for Shiite figures Tehran has courted for decades.

Most of Iraq's Shiite political establishment remains skeptical or even hostile to Sadr.

However, the Sadrist movement has dominated the state apparatus since the 2018 elections, as it held senior positions in the ministries of interior, defense and communications.

The Sadrist bloc swept the parliamentary elections in 2021 and came first, and the number of seats dominated by al-Sadr increased to 73 from 54 in the 329-seat parliament.

Al-Sadr boosted his popularity by promising Iraqis to carry out political reforms aimed at weakening sectarianism, building a civil society, ending Iranian interference in Iraq, and removing US forces from the country.

This victory dealt a severe blow to the Shiite groups loyal to Iran, whose parliamentary representation collapsed.

One of the leaders of the pro-Iranian factions said that the armed groups are ready to use violence if necessary to ensure they do not lose influence after elections they deem to be rigged.

Politician Hussein al-Aqabi said that al-Sadr's policy of not relying on the United States or Iran had paid off, unlike parties dependent on regional powers and which "ended up almost in the shadows."