Monday (June 13th): al Sadr’s Great Resignation

al sadr
(AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)

Name? Muqtada al Sadr 

Westphalian identity? Iraqi

Age? 47

Why is he in the news? Iraq’s most influential politician, Muqtada al Sadr, who managed a landslide victory for a bloc of 73 lawmakers back in October of 2021, just had all of these lawmakers resign. The move followed months of political stagnation and no new government in sight. Last year, it seemed that he would lead Iraq away from political turmoil and instability.

Why do we care? For one, it is pretty impressive that Sadr managed to persuade 73 MPs to resign from their posts. According to him, removing his own bloc from parliament gives an opportunity for a new government to successfully negotiate with Sunni and Kurdish groups and provide a successor to PM Mustafa al-Khadimi. Sadr, who in many ways embodies the post-Hussein political establishment and enjoys widespread support, may have used this situation to sacrifice ambitions for leadership, but do it under the guise of still retaining some agency in order to maintain and leverage power

Why should you care? The Sadrist movement was originally promulgated through violent means. It has increasingly adopted mostly electoral politics as its strategy of choice for influence; but Sadr’s supporters are still passionate. The resignations, along with the closing of Sadrist offices throughout Iraq, could lead to more protests instead of less, if his movement is perceived to be threatened. You should care 5/10.

Who else cares? Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Sadrist movement is nationalistic and staunchly anti-Iran and US, although it is shiite. In fact, the shiite intra-fighting since Hussein’s deposition in 2003 has brought contentious political turmoil for almost two decades. A regression of the Sadrist leaves potential for the rise of another shiite government that supports Iran.

Any further comments? The resignations were accepted and, according to Iraqi law, now candidates who received the next-highest amount of votes will take the place of the 73 MPs. So, it remains unclear what happens from here.

Francia Morales

Editor in Chief for Research and Analysis