Allawi's coalition offers to host a national dialogue to dismantle the crisis

Counter-protests in Baghdad, security forces are on alert

Security forces use water cannons to prevent supporters of the "coordinating framework" from entering the Green Zone.

AFP

Security forces in Iraq were put on alert yesterday after hundreds of supporters of the coordination framework, rival of the leader of the Sadrist movement Muqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters have controlled the parliament building since Saturday, while the Iraqi National Coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, offered to host a national dialogue to dismantle the crisis in Iraq. Iraq.

After a new demonstration called for by the "Coordination Framework" coalition, the security forces took measures, including deploying their forces, especially around the Green Zone, and closing important roads, which led to severe traffic crises in the capital.

The spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Major General Yahya Rasoul, said in a statement yesterday: "We have deployed security forces in the Green Zone to maintain security."

He added, "There is no emergency in Tahrir Square, and a special gate has been opened for protesters to enter the Green Zone."

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, issued strict instructions to the Iraqi security forces to prevent the use of live bullets, bullets, rubber equipment and gas bombs.

He stressed that the commanders and commanders who are proven to have used live ammunition will be held accountable.

He stressed the need to ensure protection for the demonstration yards.

According to instructions circulated on social media issued by supporters of the coordination framework, the date of the gathering was set on a street that leads to one of the entrances to the fortified Green Zone, where the headquarters of the government, diplomatic missions and the parliament headquarters, which is controlled by the Sadrist movement, are located for the third day in a row.

The instructions include preventing “entry into the Green Zone” and stressing that the protests are “not directed against a person or group” and “aimed at defending the state, its legitimacy and its institutions.”

The organizers called for "full cooperation with the security services and not to interact with them, as we went out to restore to them their prestige that was dropped by others."

They also called for only carrying the Iraqi flag, not being drawn into rumors, and rejecting provocative slogans.

A source in Nuri al-Maliki's office confirmed the validity of the calls to demonstrate and the instructions circulated in this regard.

Meanwhile, a prominent source in the Sadrist movement said that the supporters of the movement will go out to protest in all governorates of the country.

In a press statement, Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi, who is close to al-Sadr, urged al-Sadr's followers to go out in demonstrations to support the demands of the protesters in the Iraqi parliament building in the Green Zone.

Al-Sadr excluded the masses of Najaf Governorate from going out in these demonstrations.

This follows Al-Sadr's call on Sunday to continue the protest, considering it a "great opportunity for a fundamental change of the political system."

The Sadrist movement, which has been in control since Saturday of the House of Representatives (parliament), rejects the candidacy of Muhammad Shia al-Sudani (52 years), who was presented by the "coordinating framework".

For his part, the Iraqi National Coalition, led by Iyad Allawi, called yesterday to work to dismantle the crisis and remove the causes of political tension through acceptable options.

The coalition indicated, in a statement yesterday, that “dismantling the crisis and removing the causes of political tension requires holding a conference of national dialogue between all parties, to agree on acceptable common options, either by proceeding with holding a session of Parliament to choose a President of the Republic and then forming a government, or moving towards dissolving Parliament. and call for early elections.

The coalition expressed its readiness to host the dialogue, and said: "Given that the National Coalition maintains good relations with all parties, it expresses its full readiness to host, sponsor and support the National Dialogue sessions anywhere that is agreed upon."

The statement called "all parties to calm down and give priority to the language of reason and dialogue, and to be keen on the public interest of citizens and the sovereignty and independence of Iraq."

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