ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday said that political rival Nouri al-Maliki has no right to lead Iraq following the emergence of audio recordings allegedly of Maliki insulting and criticizing the Shiite leader.
“I advise him [Maliki] to announce seclusion and retire from political work,” read a statement from Sadr on Monday, adding that “he has no right after these destructive thoughts to lead Iraq in any way, as that would mean devastation and destruction for Iraq and its people.”
A series of audio recordings, consisting of four episodes so far, were leaked in recent days of a man criticizing and insulting Sadr, calling him a “murderer” and a “coward”. The voice of the man has been attributed to Sadr’s longtime rival, Maliki.
Maliki denied the allegations made against him and rejected the authenticity of the recordings, saying they were fabricated to incite “chaos”.
Sadr, who initially asked his supporters to dismiss the recordings, strongly fired back in a Twitter statement on Monday, asking all parliamentary bloc leaders who are allied with Maliki to denounce the allegations made against him, and above all to reject the statements made in the recordings against the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
In other parts of the leaks, the voice is heard calling the PMF “cowards”.
Maliki responded on Sunday, stating that he has been a supporter of the “PMF and its heroes” since its inception, and that the “fabricated” incident will not affect his relationship with the armed group.
The PMF is an umbrella of armed groups that emerged during the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 to defend their own territories, in response to the call from Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The Sadrist leader said that he was “absolving” himself from any aggression or use of violence against Maliki, in case a “third party” might intervene in hopes of fueling the sedition, of which he is “innocent”.
Videos circulated on social media showing PMF loyalists setting fire to the headquarters of Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party in Baghdad on Sunday.
Dawa released a statement late Monday evening defending their position and stating that they have always been followers of Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, Sadr's father, and that they will not be drawn into a “blind sedition” of the “treacherous" aimed at dividing them.
“We call on the people of our country and the political forces to beware of falling into a conflict that only serves the enemies of Islam and the homeland,” the statement added.
The Sadrist Movement emerged from the October 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections as the bloc with the highest number of seats, and attempted to form a national majority government with its allies in the Save the Homeland Alliance: The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance.
The Coordination Framework, a pro-Iran Shiite parliamentary faction in which Maliki is a key member, opposed Sadr’s attempts at forming a national majority government, seeking a more traditional government based on political consensus.
All 73 Sadrist Movement MPs collectively resigned from the legislature in June, in a move that Sadr referred to as a “sacrifice” to allow his rivals to form a government without him.
Nine months following the parliamentary elections, and over a month after Sadr’s withdrawal, Iraq is yet to elect a new president and a new prime minister to begin forming its next government.
Updated at 11:56pm
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