“Return or continue the boycott?
Iraqi opposition leader Muqtada al-Sadr has issued various messages about his possible return to politics. Such as through next parliamentary elections and next parliament after withdrawing from parliament in mid-June 2022 by announcing its refusal to “partner with corrupts” to form a government, and dissolving the tripartite coalition with Sunni and Kurdish leaders.
In the case of returning to politics, Sadr will move towards reuniting his movement, but this move comes during increasing competition for the leadership of the Shiite community, which has made his movement face obstacles to expanding its coalitions and opening up to some traditional Shiite political forces. It has been expected that Iran is being among those who are mostly welcoming Sadr’s return to the Iraqi political process and will try to restore balance with other Shiite forces and movements in the next phase. Even if it is at the price of some of his supporters when maintains close relations with the factions of the “Resistance Front”. Washington maintains its approach to the political situation in Iraq and generally supports efforts to reduce conflicts in order to prevent the security situation from becoming more complicated than it has been, which means that if Sadr succeeds in forming a coalition government after the next elections. It will have a unique and new attitude to the entire political process in Iraq.
Steps to resume political movements”
In recent months, Sadr has taken a series of measures to reorganize his movement after a complete halt that followed his withdrawal from the political process:
First Step: Remove some members of the movement: In April 2023, Sadr went through a process of filtering the movement’s “exile,” expelling the movement’s most extremist members from so-called “those with a cause,” prefaced by organizing a campaign, followed by a series of removals the group “Saraya Al-Salam” marginalized them in the provinces on various charges.
Second Step: The service project “Al-Baniyan Al-Marsous” for all sections of Iraqi society: Sadr campaigned to activate the Al-Baniyan al-Marsous project, an organization for social solidarity within the movement, and expanded the scope of the project to all Iraqi communities, which is considered one of the basic factors connecting the movement’s communities.
Third Step: the political attitude towards the war in Gaza; with the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, Sadr took a number of attitudes, including organizing demonstrations, holding united prayers and a donation campaign for the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Fourth Step: Conducting various meetings; Sadr began with a series of visits and social gatherings to his supporters in preparation for his return, visiting Supreme Shiite Marja’i Ali al-Sistani in March, who had refrained from accepting Iraqi politicians for nearly a decade. There was the vitality of the movement, as the visit was read in several ways including Sadr seeking permission from the authorities to return to political process.
Fifth: Changing the name of the movement; Sadr changed his movement’s name from the Sadr Movement to the Shiite National Movement and held a series of meetings with civil society movements, signaling preparations for the political process.
