Iraq’s strongest politician has simply brought about a ‘tectonic shift’

Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr speaks after preliminary results of Iraq's parliamentary election were announced in Najaf, Iraq on October 11, 2021.

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The stepdown of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s entire group of 73 lawmakers is the largest shakeup in Iraqi politics since an October election saw Iran-backed Shiite blocs losing seats to the Sadrists. The Sadrists now appear to have stepped back from parliamentary politics.

“This is a tectonic shift that threatens to derail the post-2003 political order in its entirety,” said Ranj Alaaldin, nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, DC.

In a handwritten statement, Sadr said that his request for his lawmakers to resign was “a sacrifice from me for the country and the people to rid them of the unknown destiny.”

Sajad Jiyad, a fellow at The Century Foundation think tank in Washington DC, said the move “has changed the political discourse.”

The cleric is immensely popular in Iraq. For years he has positioned himself against both Iran and the United States, and in October emerged as the biggest winner in a…

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