A planned mass protest in Iraq on Saturday has been postponed by influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr until further notice.
Al-Sadr said in a statement, “I announce that the Saturday protest has been postponed until further notice.”
He added, “The people will continue their sit-in until their demands are achieved.”
Amid tension over the formation of a new government, the cleric has called on his supporters to rally on Saturday in the capital Baghdad and other provinces.
Following the nomination of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as a new prime minister by the Coordination Framework, a coalition of groups close to Iran, al-Sadr’s supporters have staged protests in recent days.
The dissolution of the Iraqi Parliament and the holding of early elections has been called for by the Shia cleric.
As the Coordination Framework hampered the Cabinet formation, 73 lawmakers of al-Sadr’s movement resigned from the 329-seat Parliament after failing to form a “national majority” government last June.
Following the country’s general elections last October, which failed since then to agree on a new government between the rival parties, Iraq has been in a political deadlock for nine months.
